19 de abril de 2019

Red VS White - Pines in MN

Hello and welcome to iNat! I wrote this for one of my students. The wording is particular for the student's situation but the information is valid. I hope you find this useful:
Pinus resinosa
Red Pine
The leaves (needles) are in fascicles of two. This indicates its a red pine.
White Pine leaves are in fascicles (bundles) of 5, or rarely 3 or 4, However, with a deciduous sheath holding them together, the bundles can fall apart if you are observing needles on the ground. If that happens you still would not expect to find only bundles of two so if there are no bundles of 5,3 or 4 on the ground you have a red pine. The mature cone is ovoid and under 2.5" long x 1" wide typical of Pinus resinosa, whereby, Pinus Strobus cone is generally elongated 3" to 6" long and 1.5" to 2" wide. So in review:
White is a 5 letter word with fascicles of 5
Red is a short word with fascicles of 2

Publicado el abril 19, 2019 07:15 TARDE por e16 e16 | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

07 de febrero de 2019

Polistes bellicosus

jonathan142 added a comment
This is indeed the more typical form while the linked one is a more regional form more common around south Texas. The main difference is that the typical form lacks spots on the abdomen whereas the south Texas form typically has a pair of spots (or occasionally more). Dr. Buck gives a summary of eastern species in his key.

There are a few particularly useful traits in separating the striped species of Florida (and really throughout most of the species' ranges):

• antennal tips not with 4 segments contrastingly light and region of head behind ocelli (occiput) not marked in yellow - rules out P. exclamans and P. bellicosus

• clypeus ("upper lip" plate) at least 50% yellow and hind femora lacking dark markings at the base - rules out P. dorsalis and P. fuscatus

• size closer to 1 inch than to 0.5 inch - additional trait to rule out P. dorsalis

Publicado el febrero 7, 2019 04:18 TARDE por e16 e16 | 2 comentarios | Deja un comentario

02 de febrero de 2019

note to unknown

When i come across an unknown, i have taken to sharing the paragraph below to help promote a positive iNat experience. Feel free to use this as you wish.

Hi. I just wanted you to know why an unknown observation never seems to get attention. It turns out the iNat software will not see an unknown and the experts will not automatically notified. It is better to state ANY ID that is obvious to you. In this case, we can assume this is a flower. If we are wrong, the experts will correct it. Type in flow - and the id for flowering plants will pop up. Select the ID and click Done. Now the "flow" experts will be notified and your observation will get the attention it deserves. Nice photos by the way

alt

Hi. I'm not sure if you know why an unknown observation never seems to get attention. It turns out the iNat software will not see an unknown and the experts will not automatically notified. It is better to state ANY ID that is obvious to you. In this case, we can assume this is a SOMETHING. If we are wrong, the experts will correct it. simply type in SOMETHING - and select the most general from the drop down. Now the experts will be notified and your observation will get the attention it deserves. Nice photos by the way.

Publicado el febrero 2, 2019 04:03 TARDE por e16 e16 | 1 comentario | Deja un comentario

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