Florida Mint Monitoring Project's Journal

December 19, 2020

Update: All observations have phenology annotations!

As of December 18th, 2020, all Lamiaceae observations from Florida have had their phenology scored! Be it "flower budding", "flowering", "fruiting", or "no evidence", all 12,418 observations have been labeled. Of course this is an ongoing endeavor, but we can already start to see some fun results. As an example, let's take a look at Florida's most commonly observed mint species, "American beautyberry" (Callicarpa americana).

I've shifted the timeline so that the chart starts at February, but we can clearly see an annual cycle pattern. The first peak we see represents observations scored as "no evidence". Apologies to those with color blindness. For your reference, this peak is centered at April. This peak corresponds to a leafing out stage in early spring before flower buds begin to appear. The next peak represents observations scored as "flower budding". These buds are inconspicuous and often hidden under leaves, so this peak is a bit shorter than the others. The third peak shows that flowering really ramps up in May and drops off in June. The fourth peak follows, and it is a big one. The fruits (see below) are very showy, and they tend to attract the gaze of inquisitive naturalists. Disproportionately so. The vast majority of American beautyberry observations in Florida are observed in fruit because of, well... their beauty.

American beautyberry is just one of 92 species of mint observed in Florida on this platform, and now you can explore phenology patterns for each of them. Go to your taxon page of interest and select the "Plant Phenology" tab. Just be sure to have the location set to Florida.

There is still some work left to do for this project, but not much! Some taxa are poorly sampled, and many taxa are poorly curated. Some taxa that need a little more attention are Clerodendrum, Scutellaria, Trichostema, Physostegia, Salvia, and Lycopus. If you have expertise with any of these groups, your help would be greatly appreciated. Only 917 observations left to move to research grade. More soon!

Posted on December 19, 2020 02:57 AM by alex_abair alex_abair | 0 comments | Leave a comment

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