100 Species

ok, so my friend La started an unschooler's network and I came upon this idea there. It came originally from scsours (is that enough links for you yet?), inspired by a not quite quote stating that few people can name 100 species growing in their neighborhood. I bet that's true, that few people can do it.

Well, I can do that and I can do that off the top of my head. And these are all wild or at least naturalized and not planted by us.

Trees
oak (then there's white oak, red oak, black, etc)
maple (hard rock, sugar, etc)
hickory
poplar
holly
pine (white, yellow, black, etc)
hemlock
wild cherry
sourwood
cedar (Virginia Juniper)
locust (white,black, honey aka thorn tree to me)
gum
beech
pine (white, black, yellow)
willows (common, weeping, etc)
ash
walnut
buckeye
butternut
redbud
spicebush
dogwood
sassafras
mulberry
wild plum

Fungus (one's I've positively identified)
jack-o-lantern
dry land fish
anamita
algaric
puff balls

Grass and weeds and flowers and herbs
fescue
black eyed susans
yarrow
queen ann's lace
butterfly weed (pleurisy root)
poke
milk weed
iron weed
stink weed (aka thorn apple, jimson weed)
joe pye weed
jewel weed
nettles
solomon's seal
false solomon's seal
golden rod
rag weed
rag wort
all the docks (burr, yellow, narrow, speckled etc)
all the plantains (english, common, etc)
dandelion
chicory
poison hemlock
cat tails
wild blackberries
wild raspberries
dog roses
poison ivy
ferns (many types)
fairy pine (ground cedar)
lady slipper
tennessee iris
indian pipe
squaw root
pennyroyal
whirled loosestrife
triliums (birthroot, brown and white)
blood root
clover (red, white, ladino)
virginia creeper
possum grapes
comfrey
agrimony
ground ivy
smart weed
purslane
wild mustard
wild ginger
pipsissiwa
tea berry
mistletoe
water cress
upland cress
nightshade
horse nettles
horse mint
peppermint
spearmint
anemones
wild strawberries
cinqfoil
huckleberry
thistle (milk, blessed)
passion flower (maypop)
mayapple
jack-in-the-pulpit
violets (purple and white)
pearly everlasting
lobelia (siphilitica)
cardinal flower
lobelia inflata (indian tobacco)
mugwort
boneset
mullein
green briar
wild lettuce

I think that is more than 100, and I didn't count the various kinds of a thing that I can distinguish and which often have different uses -- well, except those lobelias there, the inflata, siphilitica, and cardinal. I'm guessing we could do 400 or 500 if we took a notebook and kept a list and counted domestic things we plant and maybe more if we did it through a whole year so that you get the early stuff and the late stuff.

Of course, I have an advantage in that I live in an incredibly ecologically diverse place, and I've lived here forever. And I've paid attention and am very present to my environment.

I bet a few people I know can do this off the top of their heads too -- including thingfish, Wayne, and Jim. Cielo and Alecto -- how about you for the girls? It isn't that I doubt the rest of you, but, well, maybe I do doubt you. So put me in my place and show me what you know! And any of you who want to learn 100, or play by scsours rules instead of mine, have a lot of fun with it!