m_whitson's Journal

The Missouri Botanical Garden provides a checklist of Physalis known from Panama as part of their legacy Panama Checklist: http://legacy.tropicos.org/Name/40008002?projectid=4

Based on checklists from the Missouri Botanical Garden and Kew's Plants of the World Online, and cross-checked against modern nomenclatural sources, 8 species of Physalis are known from Panama, all of which are either cultivated or widespread weeds. Physalis peruviana was not included on either list, but is cultivated there and appears in several iNaturalist observations.

Updated Species List for Panama: (9 species)

Physalis angulata L.: Widespread in the Americas, weedy in warm areas worldwide.
Physalis cordata Houst. ex Mill.: Widespread in warm parts of the Americas.
Physalis gracilis Miers: Mexico to parts of South America.
Physalis ignota Britton: Mexico, Central America, parts of South America, and weedy in some other warm areas.
Physalis lagascae Roem. & Schult.: Mainly Mexico to parts of South America.
Physalis minuta Griggs: Mexico through Central America.
Physalis peruviana L.: Native to South America, widely cultivated, sometimes invasive elsewhere.
Physalis philadelphica Lam.: Mexico through Central America and widespread as an escape from cultivation.
Physalis pubescens L.: Widespread in the Americas and a weed of various tropical areas.

NOTE: Both Kew & Missouri listed P. hirsuta as being found in Panama, but there is nomenclatural conflict over the name, which was apparently used twice by different authors for different species. While both Kew and Missouri still seem to recognize different versions of the name, the species (under either interpretation) is meant to occur in Mexico, but Martinez et al. (2023) in their revision of Mexican Physalis don't mention it at all, which means they're considering a synonym of something. Overall, it looks like both versions of the name get lumped into P. pubescens by various authors (Kew says Physalis hirsuta Dunal, which Missouri recognizes as distinct, is a synonym of P. pubescens. Pretz & Deanna (2020) say Physalis hirsuta M.Martens & Galeotti, which Kew recognizes as distinct, is a synonym of P. pubescens.) Based on this, I'm considering P. hirsuta of any flavor as a synonym of P. pubescens.

Since all species of Physalis known from Panama also occur in Mexico, see Martinez et al. (2023) below if you need a key for a Panamanian specimen.

REFERENCES:

Martínez, Mahinda, Ofelia Vargas-Ponce, and Pilar Zamora-Tavares. "Taxonomic revision of Physalis in Mexico." Frontiers in genetics 14 (2023): 1080176.

Pretz, Chelsea, and Rocío Deanna. "Typifications and nomenclatural notes in Physalis (Solanaceae) from the United States." Taxon 69.1 (2020): 170-192.

The third Summer 2024 REFS Talk & Walk is on Wednesday, July 10, from 7-9 pm, and will be presented by NKU's own Dr. Yingying Xie. The topic is connections between woody plants and amphibians in vernal pools (of which there are many at REFS). Dr. Xie is an ecologist who studies phenology (timing of biological events like leafing out or blooming), so if you've been wondering what those new iNaturalist plant annotations are for, Dr. Xie can explain it all. :)

If you're interested in joining us, there's still time to sign up.

For the latest information and updates or to register, visit NKU's official REFS website: https://www.nku.edu/academics/artsci/about/centers/refs/register.html

Parking is available in front of the Field Station:
NKU Research and Education Field Station (NKU REFS)
99 Harrison Ct, Melbourne, KY 41059

And the fine print...
Class size: Limit of 20 people
Fee: Donating $10 to NKU REFS is encouraged
Please register via the REFS website at least 6 hours before the event.

Appropriate clothing/gear: The wetlands is an open field with chest-high vegetation in most areas, some of which is spiny. The trails are mowed or bare earth, but are often muddy. Mosquitoes, ticks, and poison ivy are all common residents of the area. The river bank also hosts stinging nettle. While we aim to keep the Talk & Walk hikes not-too-strenuous, proper clothing will allow for more flexibility and comfort while exploring the area. Wear clothing durable in the face of mud and bug spray. Long pants will provide protection from aggressive plants and can be tucked into socks to discourage ticks. Waterproof boots are suggested if you can't stand muddy socks, otherwise, a comfortable pair of sneakers with good treads and a spare pair of dry socks should do.

If you haven't visited NKU's Research & Education Field Station (REFS) yet -- or even if you have -- it's a great time to get "out there" (it's only 5-10 minutes from the main campus) and take advantage of one of our "Talk & Walk" guided hikes.

Our third Summer 2024 REFS Talk & Walk is on Wednesday, July 10, from 7-9 pm, and will be presented by NKU's own Dr. Yingying Xie. The topic is connections between woody plants and amphibians in vernal pools (of which there are many at REFS).

If you're interested in joining us, there's still time to sign up.

For the latest information and updates or to register, visit NKU's official REFS website: https://www.nku.edu/academics/artsci/about/centers/refs/register.html

Parking is available in front of the Field Station:
NKU Research and Education Field Station (NKU REFS)
99 Harrison Ct, Melbourne, KY 41059

And the fine print...
Class size: Limit of 20 people
Fee: Donating $10 to NKU REFS is encouraged
Please register via the REFS website at least 6 hours before the event.

Appropriate clothing/gear: The wetlands is an open field with chest-high vegetation in most areas, some of which is spiny. The trails are mowed or bare earth, but are often muddy. Mosquitoes, ticks, and poison ivy are all common residents of the area. The river bank also hosts stinging nettle. While we aim to keep the Talk & Walk hikes not-too-strenuous, proper clothing will allow for more flexibility and comfort while exploring the area. Wear clothing durable in the face of mud and bug spray. Long pants will provide protection from aggressive plants and can be tucked into socks to discourage ticks. Waterproof boots are suggested if you can't stand muddy socks, otherwise, a comfortable pair of sneakers with good treads and a spare pair of dry socks should do.

Observation fields make your observation more information rich and easier to search. You can usually add observation fields to other people's observations, too, which makes observation fields useful for research projects. For example, in the project Sphingids at Flowers ( https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/sphingids-at-flowers ) many of the observations use the field "Nectar plant" to record what plant the moth was feeding from.

Anyone can make new observation fields, which are then available to everyone. This is useful if you need something specific, but it also results in redundancy, as many people have made similar fields. I try to use the same field for the same thing for all of my observations that need it, so that when I use that field to search, I get all of my observations that fit.

For example, iNaturalist currently (7/2024) displays 561 pages of observation fields to choose from, each page with about 30 fields ( https://www.inaturalist.org/observation_fields ). A quick search for the topic of "nectar" brings up a list of 19 fields: https://www.inaturalist.org/observation_fields?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=nectar&commit=Search

If you click the name of one of these fields, you'll get a list of all of the observations and projects that use it.

Some of my favorite observation fields:

Nectar / Pollen delivering plant: A one-size-fits-all field for a pollinator visiting a flower. It's a good fit for butterflies that only feed on nectar, and I like it better than "nectar plant" for bees, since bees may be gathering pollen as well. This field uses taxon data, so it will give you dropdown name options once you've typed a few letters.

Associated observation: This is a text field where you can paste in the web address of another observation. I use this to link pollinator observations to an observation of the plant they were visiting. You can also use it to link observations of predators and prey, or observations resulting from several species in one photo.

Other Organism: This is a taxon field where you can identify another organism in your photos. I use this to record things like what type of tree the squirrel was sitting in when my photos aren't nice enough to bother with also making a tree observation.

Host Plant ID: Good for recording what your caterpillar was eating.

Some examples of my observations that use observation fields:
Dogbane leaf beetles: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/227773981
Orange Sulphur: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/228753262
Sunburst Lichen: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/128633597

The 4th Summer 2024 REFS Talk & Walk is on Wednesday, July 24, from 7-9 pm, and will be presented by Dr. Steve Yanoviak (University of Louisville). The topic is ants. These under-appreciated, social insects are diverse, have interesting behaviors, and as the primary dispersers of several kinds of wildflower seeds (among other things) are critical to our local ecosystems. Come learn more about these fascinating little insects!

If you're interested in joining us, there's still time to sign up.

For the latest information and updates or to register, visit NKU's official REFS website: https://www.nku.edu/academics/artsci/about/centers/refs/register.html

Parking is available in front of the Field Station:
NKU Research and Education Field Station (NKU REFS)
99 Harrison Ct, Melbourne, KY 41059

And the fine print...
Class size: Limit of 20 people
Fee: Donating $10 to NKU REFS is encouraged
Please register via the REFS website at least 6 hours before the event.

Appropriate clothing/gear: The wetlands is an open field with chest-high vegetation in most areas, some of which is spiny. The trails are mowed or bare earth, but are often muddy. Mosquitoes, ticks, and poison ivy are all common residents of the area. The river bank also hosts stinging nettle. While we aim to keep the Talk & Walk hikes not-too-strenuous, proper clothing will allow for more flexibility and comfort while exploring the area. Wear clothing durable in the face of mud and bug spray. Long pants will provide protection from aggressive plants and can be tucked into socks to discourage ticks. Waterproof boots are suggested if you can't stand muddy socks, otherwise, a comfortable pair of sneakers with good treads and a spare pair of dry socks should do.

If you haven't visited NKU's Research & Education Field Station (REFS) yet -- or even if you have -- it's a great time to get "out there" (it's only 5-10 minutes from the main campus) and take advantage of one of our "Talk & Walk" guided hikes.

The 4th Summer 2024 REFS Talk & Walk is on Wednesday, July 24, from 7-9 pm, and will be presented by Dr. Steve Yanoviak (University of Louisville). The topic is ants. These under-appreciated, social insects are diverse, have interesting behaviors, and as the primary dispersers of several kinds of wildflower seeds (among other things) are critical to our local ecosystems. Come learn more about these fascinating little insects!

If you're interested in joining us, there's still time to sign up.

For the latest information and updates or to register, visit NKU's official REFS website: https://www.nku.edu/academics/artsci/about/centers/refs/register.html

Parking is available in front of the Field Station:
NKU Research and Education Field Station (NKU REFS)
99 Harrison Ct, Melbourne, KY 41059

And the fine print...
Class size: Limit of 20 people
Fee: Donating $10 to NKU REFS is encouraged
Please register via the REFS website at least 6 hours before the event.

Appropriate clothing/gear: The wetlands is an open field with chest-high vegetation in most areas, some of which is spiny. The trails are mowed or bare earth, but are often muddy. Mosquitoes, ticks, and poison ivy are all common residents of the area. The river bank also hosts stinging nettle. While we aim to keep the Talk & Walk hikes not-too-strenuous, proper clothing will allow for more flexibility and comfort while exploring the area. Wear clothing durable in the face of mud and bug spray. Long pants will provide protection from aggressive plants and can be tucked into socks to discourage ticks. Waterproof boots are suggested if you can't stand muddy socks, otherwise, a comfortable pair of sneakers with good treads and a spare pair of dry socks should do.

This is meant to be a resource to introduce my students to the site and to supplement an "Intro to iNat" program I'm giving. If you're already an active iNat user, you probably don't need this (but if you're planning to do a program of your own or are trying to brainwash friends and neighbors, feel free to link people here).

Let's use the iNaturalist website ( https://www.inaturalist.org/home ) to scout for neat places to see wildflowers.

These Blue-Eyed Marys were so cool!! https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/108975261
Are there other good places nearby to see them?

Search "Collinsia verna" and once you're viewing the observations, add "Kentucky" as the location: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=26&taxon_id=116349

Now switch from grid view of the observations to map view: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=26&subview=map&taxon_id=116349

Enlarge the map to focus on the northern Kentucky area, and look for clusters of points: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?nelat=39.16903114922266&nelng=-84.23984697559932&place_id=any&subview=map&swlat=38.780416012284675&swlng=-84.95395830372432&taxon_id=116349

Scanning around the map in the northern Kentucky area, you can see several clusters of Blue-Eyed Mary observations that usually center on parks, for example:
Gunpowder Creek Nature Park
Flagship Park
Withrow Nature Preserve
Woodland Mound Park

If you click on a point, you can see the observation that was made (or if you click on an observation in the list to the side, it will highlight the point on the map).

Which of these places might be fun to hike?
Gunpowder Creek Nature Park sounds interesting, but...
Not all places are defined in iNat's maps. If you try adding "Gunpowder Creek Nature Park" into the "location" field next to "Collinsia verna", nothing pops up.

Let's try something else. Replace "Collinsia verna" with "plant" (you'll get Plantae) to broaden your search, and then click the "filters" button to get some advanced search options. In the "Descriptions / Tags" field, add "Gunpowder Creek Nature Park." This will limit records to observations including that phrase. If you're worried that the name is too general and you may get observations you don't want, you can also go down to the "Place" field under the "More filters" and enter "Kentucky" to limit where observations can come from. Click "search" and we get 80+ observations, mostly of spring wildflowers:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=26&q=Gunpowder%20Creek%20Nature%20Park&taxon_id=47126

If you click the "species" tab rather than the "observations" tab, you'll get the results organized by which species are most commonly observed:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=26&q=Gunpowder%20Creek%20Nature%20Park&taxon_id=47126&view=species
It looks like there's lots of Phlox, Mayapple, Larkspur, Trout Lily, and Trillium at this site (in addition to our Blue-Eyed Mary).
Gunpowder Creek Nature Park looks like a fun place to hike.

This is meant to be a resource to introduce my students to the site and to supplement an "Intro to iNat" program I'm giving. If you're already an active iNat user, you probably don't need this (but if you're planning to do a program of your own or are trying to brainwash friends and neighbors, feel free to link people here).

Let's use the iNaturalist website ( https://www.inaturalist.org/home ) to decide when we're likely to see our favorite wildflowers.
These Blue-Eyed Marys were so cool!! https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/108975261
I want to see them again. When should go hiking?

My original observation was made on April 15 (see the "observed" field to the right of the observation photo), so sometime in April is a good choice, but unusually warm or cold spring weather can affect bloom times.

Let's get more information. Click the "Collinsia verna" at the top of the observation and it will take you to the "About" page for that taxon. Now look at the "Charts" to the right of the taxon photo and from "Seasonality", you can see that most observations of this species are posted between March and June. Now click the "Map" tab below the species photo and you'll see that these observations are being reported from multiple states:
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/116349-Collinsia-verna

We're interested in Kentucky. Can we narrow our results?
To the right of the species name at the top of the page, there's a small "Filter by Place" option. Click it and type in "Boone County, KY" and then select it from the list. Now go back down to the "Charts" area and click the "Flowers and Fruits" tab. If you hover over any of the lines with your mouse, you'll get a note explaining what's represented. We can see that what's seen in our area agrees with elsewhere: peak flowering season is in April.

Can we get more information about specific dates?
Click the "View All" button under "Total Observations" and above the "Charts" area. That will show all the Boone County observations. Now, above the first observation, click "List" to switch from grid view to list view. Click the "Observed" column of the list to switch between sorted newest to oldest or vice versa. You can now scroll down the list to see the specific dates observations were made on. From this list, it looks like for most years, mid to late April is the best time to see these in bloom.

If it's early April and you're trying to decide whether it's time yet to make a trip to the park, look at Kentucky observations of the species in grid view. The default is that they're sorted by "Date Observed". Thus, if you do a search to check from time to time, you can see when people start to post lots of observations of flowering individuals, and then it's probably time for a hike:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?order_by=observed_on&place_id=26&preferred_place_id=1&taxon_id=116349