I have somewhat similar situation, at my dacha we had many pineappleweeds growing around, with flowers not like those of other “mayweeds”, and nice smell it was my favourite local plant. And it took me 10 more years to know that it’s far from being “local”.
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I notice the computer vision always goes for the flower even if anything else is in the photo. No plant blindness for it!
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The other possibility is that the observer posted the photo twice, once for the flower and once for the bug. I have been known to do that :-) But I will also confess that at least half of the bugs I’ve posted have been accidental discoveries in pix of other things!
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Insects are the original photobombers
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Except I thought I knew a dandelion until I started to learn about plants:) There are so many dandelion-like plants…or types of dandelion? but that’s what makes it interesting…
At knee-high I was following my mother around her work as a live-in school gardener … one of my favourite picture-books was a field guide to mushrooms…our holidays were camping and walking…so it came as a real shock to realise, quite recently, that the much-publicized funding and community initiatives currently addressing the need for environmental action treat plants as a background…eg trampling over them, even in some cases in sensitive forest, to plant trees to absorb carbon and feed the birds.
NB I love birds too. We don’t have any native mammals in New Zealand except two species of bat,(are they mammals?) neither seen by anyone I know. So wild animals here are mostly rats and Australian possums, both pests, unfortunately.
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Bats are definitely mammals.
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Thanks dhricenak:)
Back on topic…I have been thinking about this, and actually there is insect blindness too, so perhaps the issue is really nature-blindness? With an exception being made for a few furry or colourful animal species or those with entertaining behaviour?
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The environment is very “busy” in sensory terms, and the human brain has evolved to “filter out” unlikely threats so as to more focus on and be aware of actual threats to our survival. If you are on a “general” bush walk, ie not one where you are specifically looking for such, you are not likely to notice a fern as you walk by it, but you might notice a large rotten tree leaning precariously over the track and looking like it could fall on top of you. Anything moving is naturally going to demand a larger slice of brain processing power, and anything that hooks into and evokes strong memories will likewise escape the “not a threat” filtering ability of the human brain.
I would expect this to work sort of “in reverse” too… if you were hungry and walking through the bush, you might be more inclined to notice plants and anything else that might be perceived as food, and the filter would be set to “not edible”
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I’m definitely grass-blind (or, grass and grassy-looking-things), even though I do mostly plants. Apparently in my brain grass isn’t a plant. Although I do make the occasional exception.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/34391485
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/21272730
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/21250120
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Goodpoint. So I am obviously marine-blind too:)
Grasses are tough to get into! But worth doing eventually. Of the plants folks usually regard in general as “grasses” I think it’s easiest to learn some of the common rushes (Juncus) first to get your feet wet, then spend time on some sedges (Carex) for the conceptual workout, and some spike-rushes (Eleocharis) for some practice with itty bitty parts- after all that it’s easy enough to learn the anatomy basics of true grasses (Poaceae) and start learning those (plus the rest of Juncaceae and Cyperaceae come pretty easily then).
It’s intimidating at first, but taking it one piece at a time anyone can get a handle on it. And then one more layer of that “green wall” resolves into a community of diverse and specific entities, like you’ve popped a new pair of eyeballs into your sockets.
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Yes, grasses and grass.like plants may seem intimidating at first but, in my opinion, mainly because they lack showy colors.
I think I can say that becoming confindent with these taxa much depends on the keys that are used.
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We have all the restios as well. Daunting! Also currently doing DNA research on South Africa’s sedges - lots of name changes coming.
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And they make a lovely tea for sore throats.
For me, I was taking pictures of a plant so that inaturalist could iD it (I haven’t uploaded it yet), but as I was looking through my pictures, I noticed that there was a spider siting on the top of the plant that I didn’t notice at the time 0_0.
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Me too…that’s why my insect obs are often pictures of a blurry insect in the corner of an image:) But better late than never, and it helps me spot them in life next time.
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When I was a child I was most interested in insects and then I switched to plants, maybe because they are easier to find and observe. (But taking closeup pictures of plants when it is windy can be tiring).
I’m still interested in insects, but when I see a picture on iNat showing a fly on an ivy, it is clear that I first attempt to make sure it is an ivy and feel a bit disappointed when I see the observation is about the fly.
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I remember I explained my cousin what a hollyhock is (first time in painting, in a museum, and a few other times). Later she was able to notice hollyhocks, in one place or another, and she was surprised about that, not having an interest for plants in general.
This is similar to other stories in the discussions above. I would say that it is about education of the gaze.
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A kind of insect blindness: I’m doing general identification, passing a seemingly endless series of moths, mushrooms, mosses, moths, interesting South American birds, more moths, and other things I cannot identify. At last! I know that plant! And as I go to identify it, I realize it was posted for that darn lovely butterfly. Drat! (Back to the search.)
I do wish that people who photo insects on wild, potentially identifiable plants would duplicate the observation and post them for the plant, too.
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