BotanyBlitz ID Tips: Vegetative ID of Dutchman's Breeches & Squirrel Corn
We're fast approaching (or maybe already there in certain areas) that point in spring where there's no question which Dicentra species we're looking at, it's either tiny breeches or tiny hearts:
(Left: Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) by @herbane; Right: Squirrel Corn (Dicentra canadensis) by @maryrebeccau)
But what about before the flowers have fully developed? We've all been there, in early to mid-March, impatiently staring at a clump of Dicentra leaves and wanting to know which species it is. Fortunately, there are a couple of clues that can reveal their identities from relatively early on! The following images are from this observation of Squirrel Corn, side by side with with Dutchman's Breeches.
Clue 1: Lower Leaf Surface
Turn over a leaf and examine the color of the underside. The difference can be subtle, but Dutchman's Breeches is pale green on the underside (on the left in both photos), whereas Squirrel Corn has a grayish cast (on the right in the photos), particularly on newer leaves, although the intensity of the grayish cast does seem to diminish somewhat as Squirrel Corn foliage matures.
Clue 2: Corm Shape
Dicentra corms often sit rather close to the soil surface, and may be partially visible if you pull back the leaf litter at the base of the plant. If you can see the tops of any corms, look for either pointed-tipped corms (like garlic cloves) for Dutchman's Breeches, or rounded potato-like corms for Squirrel Corn.
So next time you're out photographing either of these species, make sure to flip over a leaf and gently check for visible corms, they might help you recognize these wildflower friends earlier than you thought possible!
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Thanks so much for these details.
Thank you so much. I'm pretty new at this but loving it. Hoping to absorb all I can from the Pro's.
Good tips!
@vvoelker I am admin on the iNat City Nature Challenge Bioblitz from April 29-May 2 for Louisville Metro. How can I reach a group of folks at the same time using iNat email system? Any ideas other than finding them and contacting them one at a time? That is one thing I hope iNat works on making easier for large project managers. Also, how can I find the TOP users of iNat within Jefferson County? Thanks for any thoughts you have.
Hi @margaridamaria! Group messaging is a request that has come up more than once in the iNat forums (see recent discussion here: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/contact-observers/28025 ), but to my knowledge, iNat staff has not chosen to develop this feature, and iNat's messaging system can only send messages between two users. My personal work-around is to use the project journal to tag people en masse with a message. This is admittedly an imperfect solution, since sometimes notifications from being tagged can get lost or overlooked if a particular user gets a large number of notifications, but it's currently the best way I know to communicate with multiple users on the platform. Sorry I can't be more helpful there!
I can do more for your second question though. To view the top observers in a particular location:
first click on "Explore" in the top row of the page. Then, in the "Location" field, filter the location for "Jefferson County, KY."
Then, below the "Species" and "Location" fields, you'll see a dark grey bar with tabs for "Observations," "Species," "Identifiers," and "Observers" -- click on the Observers tab, and that will show you the top observers.
You can re-sort the users according to rank by clicking the "Observations" and "Species" column labels on the right side of the table.
If you want, you can filter further by what people are observing: so if you want to know who's the top birder in the county you can filter the species by "Class Aves," or if you want to know who's the most active botanizer you can filter for "Kingdom Plantae."
Hope this helps!
@norabeck @ky40741 @cupnclare I'm pleased folks are finding them helpful! :)
@vvoelker Thanks so much!. So for your work around on the first question I had, I take it that you copied and pasted each individual person's email into a doc file of some sort, so you can copy and paste it into the journal, like I see above. Is that how you managed it? Thanks again. I look forward to the Botany Blitz too.
@margaridamaria Correct, I keep a running list of project members (plus a few extra if I think they may be interested) in a text file, and just copy/paste into a comment when I make a new post.
Should be a fun week!!
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