Day 354: One of the challenges of botany is being able to recognize plants in their different phenophases: foliage, bud, blossom, fruiting, releasing or having released seed. With some species such as this Partridgefoot (Luetkea pectinata), the foliage persists into the later phases, but in others, it withers as fruits are forming. That said, there are other issues which may make identification difficult; case in point, a photo of foliage which landed in my email a few days ago, submitted first to a ranger, thence to our Plant Ecologist who forwarded it to me with the note, "My mind is blank." I recognized the leaves (red, clothed for autumn) as something familiar, but couldn't dredge up a memory of the blossom, so I referred it out to two experts in the field. I said "challenge," didn't I? The two botanists identified the family and confirmed my initial suspicion, but disagreed as to species. Why was this particular plant so difficult? Because it had been affected by either insect galls or disease.
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