Amelanchier Alnifolia, Serviceberry

Day 207: Identification of Serviceberry has been simplified by a reduction in the number of accepted variety names with most now lumped under Amelanchier alnifolia. There was no need for me to push through the reed-canary grass to get close enough to count stamens, and although I didn't have that information at the time, the thought of ticks was sufficient to prevent me from doing so. There is a limit to what I'm willing to sacrifice in the name of science, and while I am perfectly at ease with getting muddy, filthy, prickled and poked, I draw the line at exposing myself to ticks, and Pack Forest is full of them. That said, it's also full of Serviceberry which, in my opinion, is one of our most lovely native shrubs. The Latin "alnifolia" refers to the leaves which some feel resemble a scaled-down version of Red Alder (Alnus rubra). The lumping of varieties also means that there is no longer the necessity for assessing the amount of serration along the leaf margins. In the argot of Hitchcock, "Controversial, intergrading and unconvincing taxa within A. alnifolia, often based on continuum of pubescence variations or ped. infl. and petal length" excuses me from making a closer examination. So there.

A Landmark Weed

Day 326: They say that desperate times call for desperate measures, and so it was that I pulled Hitchcock off the shelf after an hour of browsing through pretty pictures of plants in the hope of getting lucky. I had a problem. The cause of my consternation was a weed, and therefore unlikely to appear in any field guide with "wildflower" in the title. Nor could I find it in any of my customary sources for descriptions of invasives; therefore it was probably a "weed of no concern" despite its abundance on an island in the middle of the Tilton River. As such, it had issued a challenge in the character of its three-fingered glove, and the geas was upon me to name it. There was no other option but Hitchcock in such a desperate time.

Now you might be wondering at my hesitance to dive into a dichotomous key. I am ashamed to admit that my past experience with keying out species runs rather backwards to the recommended procedure, working in reverse from a point where I can say, "Well, it can't be that." In this case, I had no such point of reference. The only thing I could say for certain about the mystery weed was that it belonged to the Fabaceae, the family of peas. That signature was in the morphology of its flower and in its distinctive leaf arrangement. I opened Hitchcock to "Fabaceae" and settled in for the siege. Fortunately, my photos had captured all the necessary details, and within a substantially shorter time than I'd expected, I had identified Melilotus albus, aka "white sweet-clover." I was so proud of myself that I immediately shot an email off to Arnie to let him know that Hitchcock and I had finally made friends with each other. Arnie's congratulation came with a qualifier of which I am equally proud: "Now you're a real botanist." Inspired by a weed! Whodathunkit?

A Day At The Museum

Day 39: Everybody loves a field trip, and yesterday seven members of the Park's Interpretive staff took the day to visit the newly-reopened Burke Museum at the University of Washington. It gave us the opportunity to witness interpretation from the other side of the fence, as it were, and I think we each found some valuable take-aways from the experience. I particularly enjoyed the chance to see curation in real time, i.e., being able to view through floor-to-ceiling glass people at work cleaning and preparing specimens for archiving. I felt that it brought science closer to the visitor, helping them make a personal connection. As for the exhibits, I started on the top floor with paleontology and worked my way down through biology and contemporary culture, and it was in the last area where I spent the most time, intent on the textiles and basketry. I would have liked more detail about each specific item, since most were labelled with a minimum of information. The minimalist style of interpretation seems to be prevalent elsewhere these days as well, not just at the Burke. As far as I know, no detailed guides were available.

That said, the highlight of the day for me was to be able to meet David Giblin, Collections Manager for the Burke's Herbarium. We've corresponded by email for many years, but had never met face-to-face. I had intended to take an hour to walk across campus, visit for a few minutes and then walk back to join the rest of our group, but when I arrived at the facility, David greeted me with a huge hug and brought me in for a full tour. I spent the next hour and a half or so nosing into specimen boxes containing vascular plants, lichens and macrofungi, and talking shop with David. As a parting gift and thank-you for the photos I've contributed to the Herbarium's gallery over the years, David presented me with a copy of the newest edition (2018) of Hitchcock's "Flora of the Pacific Northwest." It was Christmas come early for this naturalist!