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I need your help please
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Posted by ronnygoboom (My Page) on Wed, Sep 7, 05 at 21:10
| Hi! My name is Ronny and I live in New York. I am a high school student located in Auburn taking a class called New Visions environmental Science as a senior at Auburn High School. I was recently given an assignment to use the internet to identify a certain plant that I found in a greenspace in the middle of Auburn called Metcalf woods: a wood that is densely populated with buckthorn and maple trees. The plant in question is exceedingly difficult for me to identify because it is similar to many other plants and i only have a small sample. It is a green dicot with leaves similar in shape to that of a maple but about an inch and a half in diameter and smaller. Its leaves are also serated about every half a centimeter and are spaced 2 inches apart from each other on a 3 millimeter stem. The leaves are also in pairs of 2 exactly opposite eachother. On the tip of the stem is a very small green seed pod containing seeds and resembling somewhat of a jester's hat. This 1 centimeter diameter structure also has small hair like fibers with almost microscopic hooks at the end, almost exactly like birdocks. The leaves as well as the stem are covered with a fuzzy coat of about 1 millimeter long hairs, but these are barely noticable. I greatly appreciate your time and hope you are able to help me. Thanks |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: I need your help please
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| Well, I can't give you an ID, but maybe this site can narrow things down enough for you to get some idea of where to start looking. Good luck! |
Here is a link that might be useful: plant family ID
RE: I need your help please
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Here is a link that might be useful: Xanthium on google
RE: I need your help please
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| Xanthium usually has much larger leaves (from about 4 to 9 inches long is what I've seen)... first thing that comes to my mind is that it's a somewhat abnormal Geum. "Resembling a jester's hat" seems like a reasonable description of the fruits, which also do have hooked styles (see http://boechera.nmsu.edu/~paalexan/inplants2/images/Geum_laciniat_8-1103_6966.jpg, for instance), and many of them would have maple-like leaves of the right size on the stem (see http://www.missouriplants.com/Whitealt/Geum_canadense_page.html for some of the variations in leaf shape). The only problem is that Geum normally has alternate leaves. I've seen some aberrant Geums with opposite leaves, though, so it's not too unusual. Patrick Alexander |
RE: I need your help please
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| Instead of using the Internet, that student should have been told to use a good field guide with a key or detailed reference books wisth keys(Britton and Brown, Gleason etc) back in the lab. The use of reference texts with keys in the field and in the lab is what an environmental scientist needs to learn to do, not asking the general public on a garden forum what he has found. Mitre wort (Mitella), foamflower (Tiarella) and Coral bells (Heuchera) all have maple like opposite leaves, Mitre wort has them in pairs up the stem. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Mitre wort
RE: I need your help please
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RE: I need your help please +
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| Here's a sample of Clematis foliage |
Here is a link that might be useful: Clematis foliage
RE: I need your help please
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| Perhaps Metcalf Woods has its own website. If so, a plant list and/or map and/or inventory of plants may be included. Or mention of a contact person. Or Metcalf Woods may be overseen by a local Park & Rec Department or a Street Tree Department. In other words, use the internet to locate background and/or history and/or management about Metcalf Woods and you will likely be able to ID your plant. |
RE: I need your help please
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Is it possible for you to take a photo? That would definitely solve this.
Carol |
RE: I need your help please
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| Since your teacher didn't do what we think she shouldhave, but instead instructed you to use the internet, that is how you should go about your search. You should be able to find a key online that will get you to the family and perhaps even the genus of your plant. If you get that far, "Hortiplex" on this website or the "USDA Plants Database" may take you further. Good Luck. Let us know when you have identified your plant. |
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