Details| HEY, HEY WE’RE THE MONKEES! WE’RE TOO BUSY EVOLVING TO PUT ANYBODY DOWN
June 16, 2022
7:00 – 8:00 PM (Via Zoom)
By Steve Schoenig
Hello everyone,
From Friends of the Chico State Herbarium --
the Next Presentation in "All Things Botanically Related" Every third Thursday.
www.friendsofthechicostateherbarium.com/
"California botanists are becoming more comfortable with the new family for monkeyflowers (Phrymaceae) and the "new" genera (Diplacus, Erythranthe, Mimetanthe) but there may be low awareness that the subgenus Simiolus within Erythranthe that includes the diversity of the old name Mimulus guttatus has grown from 5 species (in The Jepson Manual II) to 20 named and recognized species in California currently. Identification of these species is tricky, although half are restricted to very localized regions (like Butte County!).
The "common yellow monkey" has gone from one of the easiest identifications to one that I think most botanists are now ignoring because of unfamiliarity and the trickiness of the characters used in identification. The group is still not fully understood and may be genetically messy, but I encourage people to become more familiar with the new species recognized in this group and provide some advice on using many of the new names, especially in professionally prepared reports and lists. My talk will emphasize both the common and rare species found in the northern portion of California. If you like the color yellow, this talk is for you!"
Beginning on June 20, National Pollinator Week honors the all the pollinators that are critical to our ecosystem. Pollinators perform a valuable ecosystem service and are critical to the success of plants after fires. Some pollinators may be more abundant after fire, following the flush of flowers. Pollinators may be flies, bees, butterflies, wasps, beetles, moths, ants, birds, bats, mice...wind and water don’t count for our challenge though.
This week is the start of Pollinator Week! Pollinator week is a way to learn, celebrate, and protect pollinators. This year, or CA Fire Followers Project will be doing another challenge to promote and celebrate Pollinator Week 2022.
Challenge Details: Starting June 20-26, we encourage you all to go out and make as many observations as possible in any of the burn sites. Keep a close eye out for flowers being pollinated along your hike! This week, there will be an opportunity for 3 individuals to win a Fire Followers Pin! Here are the categories:
Most observations total:
Most observations of pollinators:
Most identifications of pollinators:
Thank you all for your continued support of our Fire Followers Project and be sure to check out other ways in which you can celebrate Pollinator Week this year!
From Pollinator Partnership, check out their website and their official resources to help you celebrate and promote your involvement in this year’s #PollinatorWeek!
Welcome to Geophyte Club
The first rule of Geophyte Club is: You DO NOT talk about Geophyte Club
The second rule of Geophyte Club is: You DO NOT talk about Geophyte Club…
First, what is a Geophyte? Geophytes are perennial plants that store resources in underground organs: usually bulbs in a broad sense, but also tubers, corms or rhizomes. They can wait out drought or poor growing conditions underground and emerge when the time is right.
Second, what makes some geophytes fire followers? Geophytes survive burning because the storage organs are below ground protected from burning, but they also emerge en masse after fire from chemical or light cues, particularly in chaparral. It’s been an amazing year for mariposa lilies(Calochortus), and we’ve seen amazing displays of geophytes of all types through this whole year. 4 of the top observations are actually geophytes! It is also good to note that the top species observation is Blue Dicks (Dipterostemon capitatus)! With 750 observations since August of 2020, that is an 86% increase in observations in the last 5 years prior to the 2020 wildfires.
The top identifier of the listed plants above will be rewarded with a Fire Followers Shirt! Additionally, 2nd and 3rd place will also receive Fire Followers Sticker and Pins!
1) As a reminder, even if you do not know the species, you can help by identifying the observation to a finer level such as identifying the family, which is extremely helpful for others. Also, feel free to use the comment section to let others know what you're thinking! There are also approximately 30,000 observations that need an ID! Out of those 30k observations, ~250 liliaceae need ID, ~120 Marah need ID, ~1000 are Asparagales of which we are considering Agaves, Orchids, Irises, and Allies.
2)You can help by confirming IDs that have already been made, refining IDs from general to more specific and correcting mis-identifications. The Suggestions tab will offer similar plants seen in the area--make sure you check it’s a good match.
3) To find likely mis-identifications, look at the Species tab of one of the fire areas you know pretty well. Scroll down to the bottom and look at the plants that only have one or two observations. Check on any out of range observations or plants you know are ornamental.
4) Check out this amazing video from our Spring Training by Ruper Clayton and learn about the "tips and tricks" as well as what to look for that's not included in the key for the Brodiaea subfamily.
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