Not much to say about these native plants in my yard so I'll throw in some of my tips and thoughts for photographing wildflowers both for enjoyment and identification (ID). iPhone only on these using the Apple Camera app or Camera+ which has a macro setting for closeups like the cover.
- Curious about something you saw while walking in the woods? Spot the coolest bug ever? The prettiest flower and butterfly? Stumble on a rock and found a fossil? Or was it? This is the place to show your discoveries and share in the knowledge of the natural world right outside our doors. Join in the fun everyday at The Daily Bucket.
August 2017
The cover photo is a Goldenrod — Anise-scented they say but I don’t smell it, not even with the name Solidago odora. It’s getting near the end of its flowering and despite the protruding stamens and anthers. I don’t see insects on it but there could be occasional flies or bees.
So the Goldenrod and the one below are done with the macro setting from 3-4 inches distance. Often I can’t see to focus because of lighting or glare so I click a few shots as iPhone wobbles in and out. You do it often enough and you get a feel for it. Phone cameras are very smart and are constantly assessing and focusing so the image you see at that exact instant you click may not be what you get after all the processing is done.
Elephant’s Foot — not for the flower but the big basal leaf I step around most the year. They have taken over most my footpaths across the sunnier side. The flower stem is near a foot high but bare of leaves except at the top. Again a macro shot, and like what happens to so many of us taking wildflower photos, I didn’t see the ants till later.
This multiple bloom (2 open, 1 faded) shows how they continue to flower and produce lots of seeds. Too bad the phone focused on the leaf and not the flowers. I do have another iPhone app where I can make everything manual, including focus, but what’s the point when me, the phone, and the subject are all in motion.
break to wipe the sweat, brush a bug, shake a leg ...
This next wildflower is very similar to the basal leaf and tall flower stalk of the Elephant’s Foot and it grows in the same places. The obvious temptation when you photograph a flower is to bend over and capture it in all its frontal beauty. That’s cool, but for ID you need these other angles too.
Hawkweed is in the Aster or Composite family. I’ve been meaning to ID this for quite a few years. Not having any formal Intro to Botany, my learning process is haphazard and random — pretty much the same way I learned to program and use computers. So browsing a 100 year old field guide lead me to this plant. Thankfully my go-to website for determining what grows in my woods, Atlas of Florida Plants, allows searching on older scientific names.
The structure and shape of a seed and seedhead can help with ID, and it helps to have a list of local plants to narrow your search. I‘ve downloaded several spreadsheets put together by experts and specific to nearby locations. Check your area’s botanical, native plant, or university websites.
Getting shots of the flower stem, the leaf shape and structure, and in this case, noting the fine hairs, is key to ID. At this point I have most the characteristics for this plant and I think the genus is Hieracium and there’s 2 species it might be. Next step is to try another website and read the descriptions, sometimes very technical, but I muddle thru and learn here and there. After a series of comparisons and multiple trips to look at more detail, I can usually figure it out. Or I work on it for a year or 2 before maybe getting it ...
Next up is a rare Liatris soon to flower - Liatris gholsonii. Endemic to a few spots here along the Apalachicola River, it is named after a local botanist, Angus Gholson, by Dr Loran Anderson who was able to differentiate the plant from the similar L. gracilis in 2002.
I’m guessing it showed up in my yard from my workdays at Ms. Helen’s Longleaf Pine restoration ( here, here, here) where it makes a special place even more special. In my yard I have a few other Liatris species but I forget which is which at times. There is so much to figure out as they adapt to my woodsy slope. For one, my gather and scatter approach to seeding from roadside plants, plus the accidental carries, means trouble with wildflowers once removed from natural habitat. Does my gholsonii reunite with the gracilis over time and produce what then — Liatris phscottii?
If I paid attention to what Angus said in the article above, I’d know to measure the width of the bottom leaves which are often key to ID even with such a slight difference as here.
Absolutely no idea what this next plant is or where it came from. No surprise it’s right along one of my small trails thru this 1/4 acre of patchy wildflowers. It will be watched intensely over the next few weeks. Could be anything, native or not, but gone if it looks too weedy.
Well what’s a bucket without some butterflies? Fiery Skipper or a Southern Skipperling on non-native Lantana which is a native plant in the southern range of these butterflies and grows well here. At least this variety is sterile and not the nasty invasive. And maybe the butterflies need a break from that African Blue Basil they slurp all day. I swear ABB must be like crack for them and the bees.
Spot, stop and shoot — the usual approach when getting photos of butterflies. Get that first one from a distance before it flies off, then zoom in, or step in, or both, and keep clicking. I can get quite close if I’m patient. Unfortunately iPhones do not zoom well (it’s digital, not optical zoom) so photographs get grainy, and often, autofocus is not your friend.
Of course I didn’t follow one of my first rules for photographing wildflowers — Do not shoot in full sun. Shade your target with your body, a hat, a friend, something so you don’t get this blistering brightness. There’s only so much you can do in photo-editing if parts get over-exposed. In this shot there was no option for shading without scaring off the target but it’s good enough for ID.
Today’s photos were taken on a iPhone SE and dowloaded to Mac. Simple edit, trim & resize done in Mac Preview. Photos are saved my old-school way in dated and labeled folders. Never trusted the Mac Photos app to do things right, and there is no way I’m ever going to put these 1000s of photos in the cloud.
So to wrap up this bucket, best advice is to experiment. Take a bunch, think of what you are seeing even when you can’t. Practice with macro, try zooming with lens and with hands extended and shooting blindly. Right now I’m off to filter thru the 2 dozen photos I took this morning as I try to ID this Bedstraw. One of 4 species — how hard could that be right? See ya in the comments...
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