So it’s not exactly on the forefront of scientific discover, but I recently came across a species of Vernonia out of its documented range. This is according to the state universities’ herbarium online databases at least. I obviously have it up as an observation on here, but other than that, who can I contact that might want to know more?
I should also clarify that I’m going to try to contact the conservation organization that owns the land to see if they did any “restoration” plantings/seedings. This observation was the only plant I saw in the area, so if they did try to establish this species here, it isn’t working very well haha. I think it’s also not likely a garden escapee because I doubt people are planting Vernonia (although it is a cool plant). who knows?
Firstly adding the observation onto iNat was a good first step. Contacting the conservation organization also seems a good move too. Personally I’m not so sure how to proceed afterwards, my thinking is to maybe contact a local museum or university that has a related department about the finding.
Search on Google Scholar or try to find someone who studies the species or related ones. A lot of times there are published records of species that are not represented through records in certain databases.
So I contacted someone from the conservancy and a few years back there was construction done on the road and he believes it is most likely that they threw down a generic “native” seed mix probably, which makes sense. Its most likely there unnaturally/from humans, BUT it’s still surprising that after 5 years (i think) there is still at least one plant doing well this far north.
