Asteraceae: a good choice for summer collectors

Ox-eye daisy in the University of Neufchatel herbarium.

 Student K came in for a bit of support with her Asteraceae collection yesterday. I brought in my 20th-century collection to show her. As you will find out one day, it is slightly shocking how time flies. However, my pressed plants were still looking ok despite their advanced age. I had 35 species, and do you know what, I got a 2:1 for it (at least, that's my recollection)! Either my university had quite a different mark scheme. Or else it's an example of so-called grade inflation :)

Prickly lettuce and its spines. CC image by Harry Rose.

 But don't you worry about that - I reckon you'll get a first if you turn in 35 species. Student K made a good dent on that number yesterday: we had an amble round the scruffy parts of campus and found 19. This is definitely the moment to go collecting Asteraceae. Grasses seem to have faded in all this heat, but the Asteraceae don't seem to care so much. I think my favourite was the slyly spiny Prickly lettuce (Lactuca serriola). It's full of milky latex (a trait you'll know from Dandelions) and has skin-snagging prickles along the back vein of the leaves. Both things would be enough to put off potential nibblers (large and small).

Distinctive weirdness on Perennial sow thistle. CC TeunSpaans.

 My other favourite was Perennial sow thistle (Sonchus arvensis). It looks a bit like a dandelion to the uninitiated, but is much bigger and branchier, has nice leaves that clasp its stem, and most superbly it has weird blob-tipped glandular hairs (get out those hand lenses). I imagine they're to deter little insects.

Sea aster with its fleshy leaves. CC image Kristian Peters.

And remember, that although lots of species like tufty wasteground, if you expand your horizons you will find more species (and impress the markers). K lives near some saltmarsh: I suggested she might find Sea aster (Aster tripolium) there.

 Meanwhile there are other species that specialise on chalk grassland. I recently went to visit Student M on her marvellous placement looking after rare butterflies on a very steep calcareous grassland hill: she's noticed many lovely Asteraceae there including the Dwarf thistle (Cirsium acaule). I think I spotted the beautifully geometric Woolly thistle (Cirsium eriophorum) too.

Mmm so geometric. CC image Derek Harper

The picture at the top of the page shows a beautifully pressed Ox-eye daisy specimen in the University of Neufchatel herbarium - the sort of thing you could definitely emulate with your specimens. I think it's held onto the paper using this technique.

Now I have to go and squint at some mosses and lichens - first to identify them, and then to make something to help the new first years identify them as part of a new activity on Dartmoor. A nice job if it didn't require quite so much concentration in this heat. But do contact me if you'd like any help or advice about your botanical and entomological exploits.