I mostly observe native flowering plants on roadsides in my area - North Carolina, USA. Recently, I have become fascinated by the basal rosettes I see. They are not often mentioned or pictured in field guides or identification keys, yet many of them appear to be be unique to the species. Some “weed” identification sites do show such pictures. Are there any other resources out there that can help me learn more about these rosettes?
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Not that I’m aware of, but I have created a project to help people learn about them. You’re more than welcome to look over photos and add observations if you’re certain an ID (be sure to read the rules).
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/plants-out-of-season
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Thank you, nathantaylor!
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there are often specific guides for this.
I have one called the “Central Region Seedling ID Guide for Native Prairie Plants” that was put out by the USDA NRCS and the Missouri Dept of Conservation from Oct 2005. Got it in grad school, I think.
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Nothing beats learning this by yourself.
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Yeah, the best way is to watch the plants grow over seasons. Even better, photograph them and ID them later so you have pictures available to show others who want to learn. Some species are very distinctive and well-known in the basal stages, but not all. Though frankly, a lot of annual forbs are probably very difficult to tell apart.
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Appreciate that, naturalist_nate. I have ordered a copy and it is on its way to me.
If you have the means, I highly recommend sowing some seeds in pots to watch at home. Nothing teaches you about plants like starting them from scratch!
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That’s exactly what I have done - growing native plants from seeds. I actually have quite a few seedling and rosette pictures but haven’t started uploading any of them to iNat yet. I usually have a long backlog of wild observations even without adding cultivated ones into the mix. But maybe these might actually be of interest as reference material for questions like this. I’m in North Carolina as well and found the best sources for wildflower seeds are the NC Botanical Garden and seed exchanges by the NC Native Plant Society, usually happening in December.
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I haven’t uploaded mine either. It is a bummer that I want to upload them for other people to reference but the casual status will make the photos more difficult to find. Gotta hope people will set “quality grade: any” when browsing taxon photos.
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For ID of rosettes in a limited area (but it includes many widespread weeds), Dichotyledonous rosettes of eastern Nebraska: descriptions and key, by Phillip David Moore, a master’s thesis at University of Nebraska at Omaha.
If you see rosettes you know, photo and post them! Your identification will help people who want to learn them.
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That’s a great project - I see it isn’t limited to rosettes, as it includes other kinds of plants!
I added some of my observations as I see there aren’t many from South America as a whole :D
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Is there a field for “rosette”? I know that I have a few mixed in amongst my observations.
@sedgequeen, yes! I did a little of that last winter when I saw them on my roadside jaunts. That ‘s actually what got me interested. I saw many I did not already know, and they did not get any identifications, which I can understand. But it made me want to know more! Now it is fall, and I am starting to see them showing up again.
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@sedgequeen, that master’s thesis is terrific and there are lots of species in it that grow here in NC. I can’t wait to try it out. Thank you for that suggestion.
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You can use annotation for not flowering.
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I agree. I knew exactly what these sprouts were, because I previously germinated seeds for my own garden in flats.
Of course, location and habitat helps: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/97490280
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Looking forward to you adding the pictures of rosettes to the pictures that appear on suggestions. I think I have Moth Mullein in my gravel driveway, I took pictures and if it doesn’t get run over by mistake, I will post them next year when I am sure.
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You can add them to the photos that appear as suggestions. It is an option under curation that is open to everyone. I was frustrated that the purple crown vetch fruit was not included in any of the suggestion pictures, so I took a picture of my weed patch with one flower (to confirm the id) and several fruit and added it.