Diario del proyecto Project Stay Planted 2020

Project Stay Planted 2022 begins on Earth Day April 22 and runs through Memorial Day. Search for Project Stay Planted 2022 and join this year's project. We can't wait to see the plants, lichen, and fungi you find this year!

If you need a refresher on how to use iNaturalist or want to observe plants with other participants, join our workshops at the Garden on Saturdays at 12:30pm. For updates and a list of workshop dates, check out naplesgarden.org/project-stay-planted/

Hello Naturalists!

If you enjoyed participating in this project last year, I encourage you to search for Project Stay Planted 2021 and join us for a second round of fun!

Project Stay Planted 2021 starts April 22 and runs through Memorial Day. Join our project and search for plants, lichen, and fungi all around you, no matter where you are! Hope to “see” you there.

For updates, check out naplesgarden.org/project-stay-planted/

We have one weekend left of our bioblitz, so let’s make it count! Get outside this weekend and look for plant species that haven’t been observed by others or that may be new to you. All observations must be in by midnight, Monday, May 25. If the weather looks bad near you or you aren’t able to get outside, consider looking through the observations that have already been posted. You can suggest identifications for plants that you know and confirm all non-wild plants are labeled as “captive or cultivated.” If you are using a web browser or android device, you can add annotations, so we know if a plant was flowering, fruiting, alive, or dead. It takes all kinds of participation to make a successful bioblitz. Thank you for being a part of it. We can’t wait to see what Monday brings!

Together we have observed close to 700 species of plants, fungi, and lichen! While roughly 95% of the organisms we have observed are plants, the other 6% is comprised of a variety of fungi and lichen. Why is there such a disparity in plant versus fungi and lichen observations?

It may be because our eyes are first drawn to showy blooms and charismatic plant specimens before the small mushroom on a decaying log or the flat patch of lichen on some tree bark. Along with the latter often being invisible to the naked eye, many of us are unfamiliar with fungi and lichen. Fungi are microorganisms that are everywhere, like mushrooms, mold, and yeast. Lichen are a combination of fungi, cyanobacteria, and algae living in a mutualistic relationship. Even scientists are mystified by lichen and fungi. There are around 120,000 known species in the Fungi Kingdom, but recent findings lead scientists to believe there may be closer to 2.2 to 3.8 million species! To put that into perspective, there are about 1 million species in the Animal Kingdom, and around 390,000 known species in the Plant Kingdom.

Despite all of this, one user has found quite a variety of fungi and lichen and has taken the overall top rankings on our Project leaderboard this week! Congratulations to user taylorlevit for submitting the most observations and most observed species this week. One fungal find by this user may look familiar to you due to its large home range. If you look at the iNaturalist distribution map for mica cap (Coprinellus micaceus), you might just find that it has been observed near you! We encourage you to spend some time this weekend looking for some often-overlooked fungi. You might find your own mica cap or some fungi and lichen that you passed before.

We reached our goal of 500 species this weekend, and then surpassed it! Thank you for logging species that were new to our project, and possibly new to you.

I know this weekend I definitely added a few more species to my repertoire. From the tuberous grasspink (Calopogon tuberosus) to the seaside brookweed (Samolus parviflorus), there is no way I would have learned about these small backyard plants without the help of the iNaturalist community. I especially gained insight from the comment section of your observations. Seeing the questions, answers, and comments shared among the users in this project inspires me to ask, share, and observe more. I encourage you all to comment on an observation and ask a question to learn more about it, or even take advantage of the “fave” feature and fave an observation that interests you!

This weekend also brought some changes to the leaderboard. Congratulations to user colemama for logging 83 species so far! Observing such a great diversity deserves a prize, and we’re sending one your way. This user is currently leading our project in Most Species and Most Observations. Way to go!

Let’s celebrate biodiversity by finding it. From Maine to Texas all the way down to here in Florida, we have members from across the United States logging plant, lichen, and fungi near their homes. We are SO CLOSE to logging 500 different species in Project Stay Planted. Let’s see if we can work together to reach that milestone! Scroll through the species observations other members have already made. Is there a plant, lichen, or fungus near you that isn’t yet represented in our project? Snap a picture and log your observation!

Stay updated and read highlights on our journal posts here, on the leaderboard of the project page, and by visiting naplesgarden.org/conservation/project-stay-planted.

Congrats to user mandijyn, who logged the most species in the first 24 hours of Project Stay Planted, besting even our staff participants and earning a special prize package! That’s right—we're giving prizes during the project, so get out there and log your plant, fungi, and lichen observations.

If you have signed up for the project and haven’t made an observation yet, take a few minutes this weekend and just snap a photo of the first plant you see outside to get a feel for how easy it is. Once you start, it’s hard to stop! In fact, I’ve heard more than one project participant call it “addictive.”

For me, I’ve been stunned at the diversity beneath my feet. On Wednesday, I slowed down and took my time to survey an area I walk by every day. I sounded like Ariel, the Little Mermaid, as I marveled, “What’s this? What’s THIS? What’s this!” with every step. Common bogbuttons carpeting the earth, pineland rayless goldenrod poking up like little rays of sunshine, smilax species competing against each other as they wrapped around other plants—I had been overlooking all these plants, and many more I found. Now, I have a connection to them and can check in with them on future walks!

It looks like we’ll get some much-needed rain in Southwest Florida this weekend. Rain seems to be in the forecast, too, for our project participants in Missouri, New Hampshire, and Texas! April showers do bring May flowers, I suppose. How about this weekend, in between rain showers, we all go out and find a flower that is new to us? Look for one you’ve maybe seen, but whose name you don’t know. Learning a plant name doesn’t have to be intimidating—just think of it like you’re learning the name of a new friend.

Happy bioblitzing!

<!DOCTYPE html>

Stay up to date on project highlights now through May 25 by checking our journal posts here and on Naples Botanical Garden’s website, naplesgarden.org/conservation/project-stay-planted.

Watch the video below to learn why you should participate in Project Stay Planted. We hope you go out and discover the nature near you!