{"id":66766,"date":"2015-10-19T09:01:05","date_gmt":"2015-10-19T16:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-clm-blog.pantheonsite.io\/?p=66766"},"modified":"2015-10-19T09:01:05","modified_gmt":"2015-10-19T16:01:05","slug":"asters-in-abundance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=66766","title":{"rendered":"Asters in Abundance"},"content":{"rendered":"

The collecting season is short here in New England, and we are nearly done with our quota (182 of 200 collections to date). \u00a0We have noticed a distinct pattern in the dominance of the species we have collected based on their abundance and phenology: \u00a0Back in July and the first half of August,\u00a0we were mostly collecting the saltmarsh blackgrass\u00a0(Juncus gerardii<\/em>), and from the latter half of August to mid-September we were primarily collecting marshelder (Iva frutescens<\/em>). \u00a0For the past four weeks we have been collecting mostly asters, in particular\u00a0Eupatorium\u00a0<\/em>sp. sensu lato<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Solidago<\/em> sp. \u00a0These are all wind-dispersed seeds that are easy to collect, usually later in the season. \u00a0Unfortunately, many of the species we collect from both look incredibly similar and grow together, especially in the case of the\u00a0Solidago\u00a0<\/em>species, of which we have collected four thus far (S. altissima, S. canadensis, S. sempervirens,\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0S. rugosa<\/em>). \u00a0For example,\u00a0S. altissima\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0S. canadensis\u00a0<\/em>look identical, except that\u00a0S. altissima\u00a0<\/em>has an evenly hairy abaxial leaf surface and stem, whereas\u00a0S. canadensis\u00a0<\/em>has hairs only on the midveins, with the rest of the abaxial lamina and stem completely glabrous. \u00a0On paper this seems diagnostic, but of course, Nature has given us individuals that look intermediate between the two (e.g., very sparsely hairy on the abaxial leaf lamina and stem) and we have to make do between our trusty\u00a0Flora Novae Angliae\u00a0<\/em>key and our best understanding of goldenrod gestalt.<\/p>\n

\"Tall<\/a>

Tall goldenrod (Solidago altissima<\/em>), Grape Island, Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area, MA<\/p><\/div>\n

We have also made some great collections of species that once were all lumped in the\u00a0Eupatorium\u00a0<\/em>genus. \u00a0Of those we have collected, most are now in the\u00a0Eutrochium\u00a0<\/em>genus, e.g.,\u00a0E. dubium\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0E. maculatum.,\u00a0<\/em>but the boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum<\/em>) has remained in the old genus. \u00a0All these species tend to grow very large floral heads and make for\u00a0superb seed collections.<\/p>\n

\"Boneset<\/a>

Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum<\/em>), Harwich, MA<\/p><\/div>\n

With much of our work now focused on wind-dispersed seed (Asteraceae and others), we couldn’t help but take advantage of helping Nature out with\u00a0dispersal too, with these milkweed (Asclepias syriaca<\/em>) seeds:
\n\"DSC_0324\"<\/a> \"DSC_0335\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The collecting season is short here in New England, and we are nearly done with our quota (182 of 200 collections to date). \u00a0We have noticed a distinct pattern in the dominance of the species we have collected based on … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7045,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66766"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7045"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66766"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66792,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66766\/revisions\/66792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}