Unidentified flora and fauna

What this album hopes to achieve

This album aims to serve as a tool if you need help in identifying plants, trees or animals you took a picture of.

There is a wealth of information in the SP community, and some members are very skillful in this area. This page tries to bring together those needing help with those in the know.

Feel free to add your pictures (specify where the picture was taken) if you just need that last bit of advice in deciding between two subspecies, or if you have absolutely no idea what you took a picture of, and please detach them once you are satisfied with the answers received. (Anything that's identified down to the genus shouldn't count as "unidentified", at least not after some time has passed. There are lots of cases where even a professional can't tell the exact species, especially from a photograph.)

To improve the chances of successful identification in the case of flowers, it is a good idea for the pictures to include both bloom and foliage. Including the size of the bloom and the height of the plant in the description helps. The location and time of year are helpful, too. Context also helps - examples: "Along a stream running through mountain hemlock and meadows", "at the timber line", or "under ponderosa pines".

And you experts, please stop by from time to time to help out others by commenting on the pictures themselves. Thank you!

Also share with others what books, websites or other resources you use to identify plants and wildlife.

Some basic advice

Some basic advice on identifying plants from nartreb.

If you know the common name, the easiest thing is to type that in to Google or Wikipedia.

If you don't know the common name, you have to learn to identify major families. For example:

If it's got a very large number of ray-shaped petals, like a dandelion, it's probably related to asters (Asteraceae). There's an album on "Sunflowers/Asters" here on SummitPost.

If it's got lots of short stamens in a ring, it's probably related to roses (Rosaceae). There's an album on the "Rose Family" here on SummitPost.

Azaleas, along with rhododendrons (in fact, azaleas *are* rhododendrons), rosebay (again a kind of rhododendron), laurel (Kalmia), blueberry, and many other shrubs are in the family Ericaceae. They all tend to have waxy, oval-ish leaves which they usually retain in winter, and their petals are fused together to some degree. Blueberries and their many relatives (cowberry, bearberry, cranberry) have small bell-shaped flowers, laurel (Kalmia) has cup-shaped flowers with fused petals, and rhododendrons have big showy flowers with the petals fused only at the base. There's an album of "ericaceous shrubs" here on SummitPost.

The iris is loved by many. There's an album on "the family Iridaceae, genus Iris" here on SummitPost. Also check out the Iris Species Database.

Resources

Resources on the web

Africa

Asia

Australia

Europe

European Mountain flora album on SummitPost.

Flora.cyberia

FloreAlpes.com (in French)

SoortenBank (in Dutch)

North America

Paul Slichter's Flora & Fauna Northwest

Paul Slichter's Flora & Fauna of Denali National Park

Plants, Birds, Insects, Organisms of Hawaii

Calflora

USDA PLANTS Database

Plants of the Lewis and Clark Trail (for the inland northwest/northern Rocky Mountains)

know-it all (a web site with many natural history resources, operated by a bilogist/retired teacher)

South America

Resources in print

Africa

Asia

Australia

Europe

Alpine Flowers: Of Britain and Europe by Christopher Grey-Wilson and Marjorie Blamey

Mountain Flowers in Colour by Anthony Huxley

North America

The Peterson Field Guide series

Plants Of The Pacific Northwest Coast: Washington, Oregon, British Columbia & Alaska by Jim Pojar and Andy MacKinnon

Guide to Colorado Wildflowers Vol. 2: The Mountains by G. K. Guennel

Flora of the Pacific Northwest: An Illustrated Manual by C. Leo Hitchcock and Arthur Cronquist

The Butterflies of Cascadia: A Field Guide to All the Species of Washington, Oregon, and Surrounding Territories by Robert Michael Pyle, Idie Ulsh, and David Nunnallee (definitive, if heavy)

The Sibley Guide to Birds by David Allen Sibley (probably the current definitive fild guide to most users, there are LIGHTER Eastern and Western editions)

Wildflowers of the Olympics and Cascades by Charles Stewart (Most smaller field guides have a problem with selection of what to leave out. This guy has a genius for including the flowers you are likely to see when climbing and hiking. And the book is LIGHT.)

South America

Acknowledgements / credits / thanks

For their help in identifying flora and fauna: A Bit, alpbabe, Anya Jingle, Arthur Digbee, b., BazZ, birdny, Bob Sihler, Mrs. dh3 and donhaller3, Ejnar Fjerdingstad, Elisabeth, franza mosco, hfaust, hiltrud.liu, Kerstin, klwagar, Lolli, MOCKBA, mrh, nartreb, ochoco, peterbud, tarol.

10 successful identifications were made in the first 3 days of this album - thanks to all!

Images

View Unidentified flora and fauna Image Gallery - 177 Images

Comments

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12

sunfish - Jul 25, 2007 6:42 pm - Voted 10/10

Well done...

and a very good idea.

Regards
sunfish

Arthur Digbee - Jul 25, 2007 6:44 pm - Voted 10/10

great idea

Not only a great idea but full of good pictures.

birdny - Jul 25, 2007 8:06 pm - Voted 10/10

It is a Great idea

Agree with those above, its a great idea. The first key in identifying here is the location of where the pics were taken.

Michael Hoyt - Jul 25, 2007 9:03 pm - Voted 10/10

Excellent

I agree, this album is a good idea; however with several provisos.

First – If people truly want help with identifying flora, it’s essential the pictures include both bloom and foliage.

Second – Including the size of the bloom and the height of the plant helps.

Third - The location and time of year are helpful, too.

Lastly – Your idea will only work if pictures are removed from this album as soon as identification is made. Even the most dedicated person is not going to page through hundreds (or even tens) of pictures in an attempt to help. That’s asking far too much.

dmiki - Jul 26, 2007 1:50 am - Hasn't voted

Re: Excellent

Thank you! I have incorporated your useful comments in the main text.

donhaller3 - Jul 26, 2007 4:50 pm - Voted 10/10

Re: Excellent

Also context helps--what "zone"? Jargon or tech language not necessary..

"Along a stream running through mountain hemlock and meadows", "at the timber line", or "under ponderosa pines" are examples.

dmiki - Jul 26, 2007 5:04 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Excellent

I've incorporated your suggestion - thanks!

mrh - Jul 26, 2007 2:33 pm - Voted 10/10

Nice idea

I'll try to get back to this soon and see if I can provide some indentifications. Generally I can at least give the genus or family name, but with some plants its hard to go beyond that based simply on photos for reasons photohiker lists.

donhaller3 - Jul 26, 2007 9:03 pm - Voted 10/10

Guides

The Butterflies of Cascadia: A Field Guide to All the Species of Washington, Oregon, and Surrounding Territories by Robert Michael Pyle, Idie Ulsh, and David Nunnallee (definitive, if heavy)

The Sibley Guide to Birds by David Allen Sibley (probably the current definitive fild guide to most users, there are LIGHTER
Eastern and Western editions)


Wildflowers of the Olympics and Cascades by Charles Stewart (Most smaller field guides have a problem with selection of what to leave out. This guy has a genius for including the flowers your likely to see when climbing and hiking. And the book is LIGHT.)

I do not know how much detail our fearless page dude wants. There are several regional guides that are useful. The Wallowas, Steens, Three Sisters all have monographs on plants that are not field guides.

Also, National Parks, Refuges, and many other areas have checklists of flora and fauna that help us nonspecialists narrow down the likely and the possible.

Where do we stop?

Finally, know-it all, a web site with many natural history resources, operated by a bilogist/retired teacher, with many excellent on-line sources, is located at:
http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters/

dmiki - Jul 27, 2007 2:15 am - Hasn't voted

Re: Guides

Thank you! I have added this great info to the page.

mrh - Aug 9, 2007 3:56 pm - Voted 10/10

Re: Guides

There is a plant guide for the Sisters? Do you have a citation or link?

donhaller3 - Aug 9, 2007 5:54 pm - Voted 10/10

Re: Guides

Yes, sort of. I have a copy at home. I will send you specifics tomorrow. ( My home computer ate its own allocation tables last Friday.)

I believe it is a U of O Press bulletin, large format soft back.

donhaller3 - Aug 10, 2007 12:53 pm - Voted 10/10

Re: Guides

Plants of the Three Sisters Region, Oregon Cascade Range.
Orlin L. Ireland. 130 pages, 34 figures. April 1968.

http://www.uoregon.edu/~mnh/Pages/mnch_pubs.html

Also appears to be available through various bookstores.

mrh - Aug 10, 2007 1:46 pm - Voted 10/10

Re: Guides

Thanks Don.

peterbud - Aug 13, 2007 5:51 am - Voted 10/10

Very useful!

I'll be on the "seek" side :)

hiltrud.liu - Nov 3, 2007 6:14 pm - Voted 10/10

Very nice...

and colourful!
Cheers
Hiltrud

dmiki - Nov 5, 2007 1:21 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Very nice...

Hiltrud, thank you for your encouragement and also for helping identify some of the plants people are unsure about!

Cyrill - Nov 29, 2007 4:13 pm - Voted 10/10

AAA

a very interesting report!

Nelson - Dec 1, 2007 10:09 pm - Voted 10/10

Great idea

I missed this one when you first posted it, glad to stumble on it now. This is a great idea and puts SP and the album concept to a great use. This idea could be extended to unidentified birds, mammals, even mountains.

There may be too many pictures in there now (64), but it's still a nice idea.

dmiki - Dec 3, 2007 8:01 am - Hasn't voted

Re: Great idea

Hello Nelson,

Thanks for your kind words.

Theoretically it does include birds, mammals (but not mountains), and there are some insect pics waiting for help in identification, but most are indeed flowers/plants.

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