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Somewhere along the pathway of my admitted obsession with Texas native plants, I stole an idea from our friends, the birders. It was a logical association, since flora and fauna are all interwoven in any biological community, or biome. We flora enthusiasts have it easier than birders – plants don’t fly away when approached and have no songs to identify.
So why not keep a life list? And why not keep it focused on our treasured Lone Star State? Although birders’ lists generally cover everywhere they have traveled, Texas spreads out over a big enough area to encompass a multitude of species, whether feathered or leafed. Few if any of us will ever see them all.
Frankly keeping such a list (preferably with accompanying photos) could be considered a hobby, albeit with a huge variety of interesting and beautiful “collectibles.” Not only will this pastime spice up a person’s life, but it also helps to jog one’s memory, sort of an extra guidebook for identifying the specimens seen previously. But in the long run, devoting time to catalog our findings can aid others in forming an accurate picture of the health of our living environment.
For starting this kind of project, most folks will already own several essentials, including a computer with Internet access, several handy guidebooks and a good camera which can take vivid close-up shots. The small camera which I use the most is also waterproof and shock-resistant, and I take it along on all my outdoor excursions. That’s because those “lucky” surprises pop up on a regular basis in places where one is least expecting them. Often a larger camera’s telephoto and manual focus capabilities come in very handy. Those two features help for catching flowers in tall trees and for putting fauna like birds and butterflies in the picture, as well as for capturing the details of tiny blooms.
As for the format that I have found useful, I give most of the credit to Eric Haskell, a ranger who served as the chief naturalist for the Army Corps of Engineers at Lake Waco. He gave me the original template which I modified somewhat for my own purposes. (Eric also worked valiantly—but, alas, unsuccessfully—to save the Waco chapter).
My original list kept track of all the species, over 360 at last count, I found on my former 16-acre spread on the North Bosque River near Valley Mills. That effort proved valuable as a basis for a more widespread compilation as I became a botanical vagabond traveling all over the state. I’m now up over the 700 mark in the number of native species in my photo collection. However since both the Valley Mills area and my new home in the northern part of San Antonio sit at opposite ends of the Hill Country, I still feel most knowledgeable in that biome. That means I’ve still got lots to learn, especially about the outrageous numbers of species in East Texas.
As we turn to some specific details, it should be emphasized that when one tackles such a formidable but delightful task, it’s your deal, not mine. But if you’re ever going to share your accumulated knowledge with other enthusiasts, it’s also desirable organize data on a professional-looking and scientific-looking foundation.
In any case, creativity is always welcome, and you’re going to have to make some decisions on your own. For instance, although I’m very fussy about sticking to the theme of “Texas native,” I also include some Mexican species, especially cacti, as “honorary” natives. Nevertheless, I carefully note the habitats (e.g., Chihuahua or Coahuila) of the ones in the honorary category and don’.include them in that 700+ number I mentioned. Moreover a few plants are considered natives by some botanists but not by others. Again it’s your choice, preferably after you’ve done some of your own research.
It’s good to start off with a legend (no, not the famous movie star kind of legend!) For instance I created several symbols; one designates official state plants (yeah, as if we didn’t all know that our several species of bluebonnets top that list) and another denotes species endemic to Texas. I also divide the state up into commonly recognized sections to pinpoint the general location(s) where plants are found, e.g., HC for Hill Country, TP for Trans Pecos, and RGV for Lower Rio Grande Valley. (However for photo captions it’s handy to pin down locations more exactly).
The format I use—both for photos, filed in several separate folders, and for the life list textual document—generally is pretty simple, although somewhat arbitrary. First I separate out the plants by habit or basic form: trees and shrubs (including some subshrubs that at first glance resemble forbs/herbs); vines (a small section); forbs (both annual and perennial); grasses and sedges (I know very little, so far, about the latter); cacti, agaves, yuccas, nolinas, and sotols; ferns, fungi, lichens, and other strange stuff (an even smaller group). Then under each habit, I separate out the plants by family, genus, and species, in alphabetical order keyed on the scientific names.
Under “Trees and Shrubs” it looks like this:
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However it’s not quite as simple as all that, and even authoritative sources sometimes argue about, for instance, what’s a shrub or a vine (e.g., poison ivy [Toxicondendron radicans] in various forms.) Also many families and some genera span across different habits. For example some members of the Asclepiadaceae (Milkweed Family) are vines and some are forbs. That’s one reason having the list on a computer helps greatly, since the “find” or “search” application can pull up plant information anywhere in the text. With that capability, the document also doubles as an index to the photos.
Even more frustrating: the botanical wizards in charge of nomenclature often change the scientific names that we amateurs depend on to definitively label individual species (especially among cacti.) That’s become more common now that DNA information has emerged. The old way set down by the guy who started all this plant classification thing, Carl Linnaeus, focused on the flowers, or inflorescences. The new cladistic approach relies heavily on similarities in DNA. Change often brings confusion. We’ve just got to deal with it, folks.
So I have had to make some decisions on organization all by myself after consulting various sources. For instance since mistletoe (Phoradendron tomentosum), which looks a lot like a forb, develops a woody stem, I placed it under “Trees and Shrubs.” And I placed plants associated with a desert climate (cacti, agaves, yuccas, sotols, nolinas) into one group.
And here’s a suggestion for a photo collection. Yes, we major in flowers because they’re generally the prettiest part of a plant.But for identification of many species, it’s also important to know what the foliage—and maybe also fruits, bark, and even wood grain—look like. That’s a big failing in the illustrations found in many guidebooks.
Even the underside of flowers sometimes helps in identification, as with two common coreopsis species, Goldenmane Tickseed (Coreopsis basilis) and Plains Coreopsis (C. tinctoria). The upper sides look a lot alike, but the undersides are different. The upper phyllaries (support structures), just under the petals, are both purple, and the lower ones are both green. But in C. basilis, the upper are short and the lower are long, while it’s just the opposite in C. tinctoria. The accompanying photos may be the first illustrations of that distinction that you’ve ever seen (because they’re the only ones I’ve ever seen as well.) Spoiler alert: you can tell the difference by the leaves too.
Oh, and because I like statistics, I keep a separate list of species only, unsorted by habit. For it I use a word processing regime that automatically keeps track of the numbers. That way each time I add a new entry (that is, when I get a photo of new plant), the program updates the total number in that section.
I hope that my experience as outlined here will encourage others to start on a similar path. Warning: it’s time-consuming and perhaps a bit addictive. But most plant enthusiasts would enjoy the process. So have at it, if you like.
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