Day 212: Let's see...I haven't grumbled about taxonomists for what? About a week? Well, they got me again, and I've had to pen another name change into my field guides. While this helps me learn the new names, it plays hob with the indexing. For example, if I have re-educated myself to refer to Hooker's Fairybells as Prosartes hookeri, I also have to remember to look the plant up under Disporum if I want to read the species description. Having "Prosartes" penned in on the photo page doesn't alphabetize it as such in the index, and there's only so much space in the margins to make notes-to-self. This particular specimen threw me for a loop because its stems bore up to five flowers at each tip. I'm lazy. I grab the lighter-weight field guides first, and the first one I pulled out described hookeri as having only two flowers per tip. Assuming that information to be correct, I couldn't make the specimen key out. I finally resorted to the weightier, lap-sized Hitchcock where the plant was correctly described as bearing up to five flowers. That meant pulling out the pen again to annotate the field guides which did not include the information (or stated it incorrectly). Cross-referencing is a valuable tool and should be used whenever possible. Prosartes hookeri (formerly Disporum) can be found in the cool, moist forests of western Washington, and it should be noted that the flowers (up to 5 per tip!) flare and expose the stamens. Now, can you spot the Cranefly?
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