Wow, what a year! With 55 project participants, we managed to submit over 20,000 observations of plants in Ontario in 2018. A total of 1,951 species were submitted to the project, consisting of 1,827 vascular plants and 124 bryophytes and others. The 1,827 vascular plant species submitted represent almost two thirds of the approximately 3,000 vascular plant species known from Ontario! The geographic coverage was also impressive: with records being submitted from Pelee Island in the south, James Bay in the north, Lake of the Woods in the west and Hawkesbury in the east, nearly every corner of the province was represented except for the northernmost areas. The best-represented counties by number of species were Halton, Peel, Middlesex, Wellington and Hamilton.

Before getting into the Big Year rankings, I'd like to thank everyone for participating. Please comment on this post if you have any stories or observations about the project. I sincerely hope that everyone had fun participating in the Big Year. For my part, it motivated me to photo document species that I would have otherwise overlooked. I have no way of easily generating statistics about unique observations, but I bet that almost everyone who participated submitted at least one species that's unique to the project. So in a way, you're all winners! If there's enough interest, I might make a new project for a 2019 Big Year. Who knows, maybe this will be the year someone breaks 1,000 species!

So here are the stats: overall, 1,951 species were observed during the Big Year. I should specify that this number only represents SPECIES. As far as I know, there's no easy way to include higher-level taxa (e.g. genera) or lower level taxa (e.g. subspecies) in the tally. This means that for those of us who submitted lots of bryophytes at only family or genus level, those aren't included in the tally. It also means that if you observed both subspecies of Spiraea alba, that species only gets counted once. Bearing that in mind, here are the top ten observers in the Ontario Botanists Big Year by number of species:

1. Pat Deacon (@pwdeacon)
2. Will Van Hemessen (@wdvanhem)
3. Joanne Redwood (@jem9red)
4. Reuven Martin (@reuvenm)
5. Bonnie Kinder (@bkinder832)
6. Gwyn Govers (@gwynethgovers)
7. Burke Korol (@bkorol)
8. Zack Harris (@zackharris)
9. Josh Vandermeulen (@josh_vandermeulen)
10. Andy Fyon (@andyfyon)

It's interesting to note that nobody was able to break 1,000 species for the Big Year. This means that none of us observed even one third of the plant species known from Ontario!

Observations of rare species are of course important because they can be new records, rang extensions, rediscoveries of historic records, etc. The top observers of rare species in the Big Year were:

1. Pat Deacon (tie!)
2. Will Van Hemessen (tie!)
3. Joanne Redwood
4. Reuven Martin
5. Bonnie Kinder
6. Gwyn Govers
7. Burke Korol
8. Mike Burrell (@mikeburrell)
9. Colin Jones (@colindjones)
10. Andy Fyon

Observations of exotic species can be just as interesting because they can indicate the spread of invasive species or represent new occurrences of cultivated plants reproducing and spreading into the wild. The top observers of exotic species were:

1. Joanne Redwood
2. Bonnie Kinder
3. Reuven Martin
4. Pat Deacon
5. Will Van Hemessen
6. Josh Vandermeulen
7. Yulia Ryzhik (@yryzhik)
8. Quinten Wiegersma (@birds_bugs_botany)
9. Gwyn Govers
10. Burke Korol

In addition to the above, I've also managed to generate some statistics for "subchallenges" within the Big Year. You can generate your own statistics at any time by clicking "Species" on the left hand side of the project page and filtering by taxa or other attributes.

Most sedges (Carex spp.):

1. Pat Deacon
2. Will Van Hemessen
3. Reuven Martin
4. Burke Korol
5. Gwyn Govers
6. Zack Harris
7. Mike Burrell
8. Jenn McPhee (@jennmcphee)
9. Joanne Redwood
10. Josh Vandermeulen

Most orchids (Orchidaceae spp.):

1. Reuven Martin
2. Joanne Redwood
3. Will Van Hemessen
4. Gwyn Govers
5. Pat Deacon
6. Mike Burrell
7. Bonnie Kinder
8. Burke Korol
9. Andy Fyon
10. Colin Jones

Most grasses (Poaceae spp.):

1. Pat Deacon
2. Will Van Hemessen
3. Reuven Martin
4. Zack Harris
5. Burke Korol
6. Joanne Redwood
7. Gwyn Govers
8. Bonnie Kinder
9. Brent Turcotte (@brentturcotte)
10. Mike Burrell

Regions by number of species:

1. Halton
2. Peel
3. Middlesex
4. Wellington
5. Hamilton
6. Durham
7. Waterloo
8. Durham
9. Elgin
10. York

Hello plant enthusiasts!

You have ten days left to photograph a late-flowering witch-hazel, bring home some bryophyte specimens or forensically identify the winter stems of some asters and goldenrods.

This isn't to say that you only have ten days left to submit observations to the project. I can't "close" the project to submissions at midnight on Dec 31st, and I don't think that would be particularly fair or helpful. In theory, you can submit observations to the project indefinitely, as long as they were observed between January 1 and December 31, 2018.

But for the purposes of declaring a "winner" of the Big Year and to hand out some bragging rights for those with the most sedges, most rare species, etc, I'm going to generate these statistics on the morning of January 1, 2019. So for those of you who are feeling competitive, consider the deadline to submit observations to be midnight on New Year's Eve.

I wish you all a wonderful holiday season filled with many walks in nature and many plants to identify.

-Will V

Hi All,

I've noticed that the project does not seem to be automatically aggregating all observations, including my own. I contacted iNat and the problem seems to be that iNaturalist uses the state of Texas as the maximum area which can be used for automatic aggregation (to avoid crippling the servers). The province of Ontario is slightly larger than Texas, so the site will not automatically aggregate observations.

Unfortunately this means that you will have to manually add observations to this project, at least until there is a fix. This can be easily done from your Observations page using the following steps:

1. Run a search of your observations for "Kingdom Plantae"
2. Click "Batch Edit"
3. Click "Select All"
4. Click "Add to Project"
5. Click "Add" next to the Ontario Botanists' Big Year 2018 project

Sorry for the inconvenience. iNat admin says they may have a fix sometime this year.

Will

Some of my most exciting iNat moments have been the discovery of new species, new populations of rare species or the rediscovery of populations that haven't been reported in decades. With so many excellent botanists participating in the Big Year, I thought that an exciting challenge would be to rediscover a species with no recent occurrences in Ontario. Examples include:

Midwestern Ninebark (Physocarpus intermedius):
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/631600-Physocarpus-intermedius
Looks like P. opulifolius but with distinctly hairy carpels. To be looked for on drier sites than P. opulifolius with sandy or limestone substrate in SW and NW Ontario.

Illinois Tick-trefoil (Desmodium illinoense):
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/161737-Desmodium-illinoense
Believed to be extirpated from Ontario, this species historically occurred in Komoka and Thamesville. To be looked for in prairie remnants in SW Ontario.

Twisted Sedge (Carex torta):
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/160131-Carex-torta
To be looked for along rocky shorelines of the Thames River and its tributaries.

Large Whorled Pogonia (Isotria verticillata):
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/62184-Isotria-verticillata
Listed as Endangered in Ontario and possibly extirpated. Hasn't been seen in some time but its phenology is poorly understood and it could reappear at locations where it hasn't been reported in years. To be looked for in lowland woods and swamp margins in the Carolinian zone.

Erect Knotweed (Polygonum erectum):
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/167240-Polygonum-erectum
Look for it in open disturbed areas in SW Ontario, such as gravel pits, railways and bluffs.

Smooth Forked Nailwort (Paronychia canadensis):
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/136368-Paronychia-canadensis
To be looked for in Essex County woods (looking at @tom15 and @marknenadov).

Round-leaved Yellow Violet (Viola rotundifolia):
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/126864-Viola-rotundifolia
To be looked for in rich deciduous woods in the Niagara and Frotenac Axis areas.

Hairy Angelica (Angelica venenosa):
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/158382-Angelica-venenosa
Used to occur in Windsor-area prairies but not reported in some time (another one for @tom15 and @marknenadov)

Hairy-jointed Meadow-parsnip (Thaspium barbinode):
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/169669-Thaspium-barbinode
To be looked for in the Niagara region.

And many others! See Rare Vascular Plants of Ontario (Oldham & Brinker, 2009) for more info.

The idea of sub-challenges seems to be a popular one. Possible sub-challenges could include:

• Most rare species
• Most native species
• Most exotic species
• Most sedges (this should be an interesting one)
• Most ??

Ideas are welcome!

Please add any comments or suggestions regarding the project and project rules here. I am open to all suggestions. :)

Will V