Oaks, Lupines, other wildflowers: photos needed for ID
This list is courtesy of iNat member yerbasanta, Thank you.
Quick tips for what to document for plant ID.
OAKS (and trees generally):
1) Please photograph the underside of leaves! This helps a surprising amount for identifying oaks in particular (as well as many other plant species)
2) Acorns and acorn caps attached to the plant
3) Trunk texture
4) Overall habit: Branching pattern, height, canopy spread
LUPINES:
1) Reveal and photograph the keel petal (hidden within the wings) to document the hairs (if any) on the upper and lower surface along the entire length.
Keel image: https://tchester.org/plants/analysis/lupinus/pix/lupinus_formosus_g4_17_crop_70_label.jpg
2) Guide to documenting lupines in more detail (including calyx, banner spots, etc): https://tchester.org/plants/analysis/lupinus/identification.html#fig_1_caption
WILDFLOWERS (IN GENERAL)
1 Area beneath flowers (involucre/hypanthium/calyx): this is surprisingly helpful, especially for ROSACEAE, ASTERACEAE, GROSSULARIACEAE, PAPAVERACEAE etc.etc
2 Basal and stem leaves
3 Close-up of stamens, carpels, petals
Comments
Thank you, Chauncey. This is really helpful, especially with lupins.
Have you tried using the Jepson eflora Keybase keys by region?
Their keys seem to be a bit different than others I've seen but it is an interesting way to look for keying characteristics. And, a list of possible species shows up that you can click to look at for examples.
https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/filter_keys.html?
No. I'll check it out. Thank you Chauncey!
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