Tuesday, August 12, 2008

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!

10 comments:

Heather Jefferies said...

oh yay! I can do that! Can I count the stuff I planted last year that took off on it's own and lives in the swamp this year?

CG said...

I reckon you can count anything you want to. I was just listing the snakes for the fauna portion.

CG said...

oh, and add this one to the trees:
Cucumber Tree (Magnolia acuminata)
aka Cucumber Magnolia
one of my very favorite trees.

Anonymous said...

Awesome challenge. I am trying to keep my list JUST to plants and ferns, because that's where I am weakest with my ID's.

I am geeking out on this assignment, of course, cg - going through the list of Florida plants to get the Latin names now...

If you and I walked through the property, I'd be able to rattle off the common names of the plants that populate my list, however.

As always, thanks for thinking of us way down in SW Florida.

CG said...

I'm so glad you are enjoying geeking out tf! Me, not so geeky. Except add fire pinks to my list too! Those are beautiful.

Cielo said...

This was fun. I added some wild critters just to prove that wild critters live in the 'burbs.

Jim said...

Hey CG!

Very nice to hear from you!

I haven't been much of a blogger lately but I couldn't resist your tiny challenge to my less than sharp memory.

So here's some of the species native to the San Bernardino Mountains where we live. Not only that, but each of the listed plants are growing in our own garden while the animal species are all regular visitors to the yard, or permanent residents.

I've listed 117 species, but there are so many more in the garden when you consider all the birds I didn't list, or the countless isects.


Common Yarrow
Wild Onion
Indian Hemp
Rock-Cress
Prickly Poppy
Crimson Columbine
Narrow Leaf Milkweed
Green Striped Mariposa Lily
Wild Morning-Glory
Indian Paintbrush
Ash Gray Paintbrush
Thistle
Miner’s Lettuce
Virgin’s Bower (Pipestem)
Wild Hyacinth (Blue Dicks)
Fireweed
California Fuschia
Stream Orchid
Fleabane
Yerba Santa
California Buckwheat
Pine Buckwheat
Sulfur-Color Buckwheat
Wright’s Buckwheat
Western Wallflower
California Poppy
Wild Geranium
Gilia
Rydberg’s Horkelia
Western Blue Iris (Blue Flag)
Granite Gilia (Prickly Phlox)
Mountain Aster
Humboldt Lily
Lemon Lily
Blue Flax
Brewer’s Lupine
Grape Soda Lupine
Dwarf Lupine
Giant Lupine
Tarweed
Pineapple Weed
Coyote Mint
Coyote Tobacco
California Evening Primrose
Anderson’s Penstemon
San Bernardino Beardtongue
Firecracker Penstemon
Bumble-Bee Penstemon
Scarlet Penstemon
Mountain Bugler
Showy Penstemon
Desert Blue Bells
Mountain Phacelia
Sticky Cinquefoil
Buttercup
Southern Goldenrod
Apricot Mallow
White Hedge Nettle
Stinging Nettle
Hedgehog Cactus
Beaver-Tail Cactus
Cane Cholla (Snake Cholla)
Prickly-Pear Cactus
Utah Service-Berry
Greenleaf Manzanita
Silver Wormwood
Great Basin Sage
Rubber Rabbitbrush
California Flannelbush
Fremont’s Bushmallow
Western Choke-Cherry
Antelope Bush
Sierra Currant
Rose Sage
Apricot Mallow
Snowberry
White Fir
Incense Cedar
Mountain Mahogany
Western Juniper
Jeffrey Pine
Singleleaf Pinyon Pine
Quaking Aspen
California Black Oak
Pygmy Nuthatch
White-Breasted Nuthatch
Mountain Chickadee
Western Bluebird
Steller’s Jay
Northern Flicker
White-Headed Woodpecker
Anna’s Hummingbird
Rufous Hummingbird
Western Tanager
Wilson’s Warbler
Yellow-Rumped Warbler
Mourning Dove
Acorn Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Violet-Green Swallow
American Robin
Black-Headed Grosbeak
Rufous-Sided Towhee
Band-Tailed Pigeon
Lesser Goldfinch
Dark-Eyed Junco
Cassin’s Finch
Mourning Cloak Butterfly
Giant Swallowtail Butterfly
Painted Lady Butterfly
California Sister Butterfly
Monarch Butterfly
Western Gray Squirrel
California Ground Squirrel
Merriam Chipmunk
Western Toad
Western Terrestrial Garter Snake

I'm going to post this list at Earth Home Garden too, in your honor.

Thanks for getting me out of my cocoon for a little while!

Love to you and yours too!!!

CG said...

Wow Jim! You are always impressive! But like me, you have the advantage of really living where you live and paying attention.

Jenn said...

Great gardener's meme.

We just moved to the low desert a bit over a year ago, but I bet I can come close to one hundred, at least half of those the desert natives.

I'll have to take a look at my neighborhood and identify the flora there!

arcolaura said...

Thanks for the idea, CG! It was fun doing a little wander in my mind to see what I could recall seeing in my usual haunts.