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. 

Snails as a resit suggestion

 I saw this photo of this 4th century mosaic (in the Basilica of Aquileia, Italy) and it reminded me that snails could also be a good choice.

CC image by Sailko

You don't have to use (and kill) "fresh snails" if you don't want to, although you can make life more difficult for yourself if you use very old abandoned shells, as they will have lost their colour and are more likely to be damaged - much harder (if at all possible) to identify.

Some of the snail collections this year (I thought) were really good - their creators had been out to a variety of habitats and so found a good number of species. Others weren't so good because they only contained a handful of species (submitting many examples of the same species isn't going to get you extra points).

I've been surveying plants at a local limestone grassland and I keep coming across snail shells (and live snails) - species you won't find in your garden.

Some species are a lot easier to identify than others. But once you've got a range to look at, you start developing an understanding of what the identification guides are getting at. There's one online at BRERC but I've found it much better to use it in combination with other resources (see here)
as some groups are particularly tricky and a range of descriptions to compare is helpful.
I've also bought a copy of this older book by Kerney and Cameron which you'd be welcome to use - the names can be a bit different but you can cross-reference with Cameron's newer book (which I also have a copy of).

You could come in and view your specimens under a dissecting microscope - it's useful to see the fine sculpturing of the shells. Or otherwise you will really need a handlens for the smaller species.

Asteraceae as an idea for a late collection

I walked round campus yesterday collecting grasses. There were many. I had a go at identifying some but perhaps due to being in recovery of some germ, I wasn't getting very far. Nevertheless, I feel that there must be enough species even without the annoyingly difficult ones, so that grasses could still make a good collection.

My other thought was that Asteraceae must also be possible. Not all of them have flowers at the moment though, which is annoying. But some Asteraceae are a lot more identifiable without flowers than some grasses are with them. So even those might be allowable in your collection so long as they had sufficient features to be identifiable (those features are what you'd want to explain in your notebook).

Pineapple mayweed (CC image by Krzysztof Ziarnek)

These are some species of Asteraceae I've seen recently:

Ragwort
Smooth sow-thistle
Ox-eye daisy
Daisy
Bristly ox-tongue
Dandelion
Spear thistle (I've seen no flowers)
Pineapple mayweed... allegedly smells of pineapple but it just smells peculiar to me
some sort of other mayweed / chamomile
Nipplewort
Lesser burdock (no flowers, but very distinctive leaves at the moment)
Groundsel
Rough hawkbit (with strange forked hairs)
Mouse-ear-hawkweed

That's 14 species and I'm sure there must be plenty more, as there are many things with yellow dandelion-like flowers about at the moment (they just require patience to investigate). You'll need a flower guide with good descriptions - I like Francis Rose's 'Wild Flower Key' and you're welcome to borrow a copy. There are keys in it to the Asteraceae - so if you showed how you'd used them to identify your plants, that would get you many marks.

Again, if you try to visit a range of habitats (for example, go to the seaside or a bit of limestone grassland), you'll be more likely to find a few more species.You can press them easily under some books, but make sure you change their newspaper and leave them long enough, so they dry out and don't go mouldy.

If you'd like some help, please do email me. 

Grasses as an idea for a late spring collection

I had an extremely quick mooch about looking for grasses between the car park and the office this morning. I think I found eight grass species with flowers, certainly seven. It was raining when I left the house so I didn't hang about, but I know there are at least two more in the verges there. And down the road there is some limestone grassland and I know there's another species or two there. Plus I've recently seen three more species in a wood. This comes to 15 species already. Fifteen. So if you're looking for some inspiration, grasses could be the thing.

Image by Matt Lavin.

These are my basic grass-collecting tips:

- Ideally visit a number of different habitats - roadsides, woods, the edge of arable fields, meadows, different geology (acid, calcareous), next to the seaside (eg salmarsh, sand dune). That's how you'll get lots of species. And the more species the better.

- Pick stems that are flowering.

- Pick them all the way down to the ground.

- If the leaves at the bottom are different, make sure you get those and make sure you keep them with the right specimen. Attach a label so you know where you got it from. And make some notes in your notebook about where you are. And maybe draw a picture of the grass in situ.

- It doesn't matter if you fold them up to get them into your plastic bag - you're going to have to fold them to get them on a page unless they're very small. But try to fold them cleanly just once or twice.

- You can store them in the fridge (with the bag all tied up) - but try to identify them as soon as possible or the ligules (an important identification feature) may deteriorate.

- Don't forget to write down your thought processes and draw some pictures in your notebook.

- As soon as you've identified them, get them pressing. You can see details here, it's very low tech but it works fine.

I'm not saying they're easy, they're not. But at least you should be able to find a good variety. And that's a good start. You can read some more via the 'Grasses' link on the left. But please do come and see me with a few specimens, and we can look down the microscopes and figure out all the important grass features together.

Wood melick, by Gilles San Martin. Mmmm wood melick, I like this one.

Some of the species I've seen recently:
Wood millet, Milium effusum
Wood melick, Melica uniflora
Cock's foot, Dactylis glomerata
Timothy grass, Phleum pratense
Annual meadow grass, Poa annua
False brome, Brachypodium sylvaticum

For those that must resit...

I'm thinking maybe grasses might be a good thing to try this time of year. I know, you may think them dull. But they're not, they're very varied. And as with everything, so much better when scrutinised under a lens.

And perhaps even the Asteraceae, I've seen a few recently.

I'm going to see if I can collect a few tomorrow to test feasibility. Watch this space.