Is every plant with a bean pod sort of fruiting structure a legume? How do you tell an agave from a yucca from Nolina or Dasylirion or whatever, if there are no flowers? Why are so many species crammed into the genus Euphorbia? When you’re identifying, do you ever filter for Dicots, or if you’re …

[image] lynnharper: Is every plant with a bean pod sort of fruiting structure a legume? If a plant has divided leaves and its fruits look like a legume, go ahead and put it in Fabaceae (legume or bean family). It’s probably a legume and if it’s not, somebody will get a pleasant feeling of su…

[image] lynnharper: Is every plant with a bean pod sort of fruiting structure a legume? *Edit: I think I defined carpel wrong, so let me try again: A carpel is the basic female unit of a flower in the same way that a stamen is the basic male unit of a flower. One stamen is the anthers and fil…

Wow. As a notanist myself, you did a spectacular job of explanation. With illustrations, even! Thank you! ETA: And interesting journal posts!

[image] arnanthescout: And I’m not a botanist. I’m a notanist, which is a portmandeau of “not” and “botanist.” The San Diego Museum of Natural History calls their plant survey volunteers parabotanists–I thought that was fun.

Uhm… according to them, what should parabotanist mean?

These spiny things (Onobrychis arenaria) do no split and are one-seeded but undoubtedly are legumes. [DSCN6721b] Nature has lot of imagination, for sure.

Just when I thought I understood legumes.

Modeled after “paralegal” - a person trained in subsidiary legal matters but not fully qualified as a lawyer. Substitute legal/lawyer for plant/botanist.

They didn’t really define it, but here’s the web page implying they are volunteers who completed a class about data and specimen collection techniques. I imagine @egordon88 is correct about the word origin. Does it mean something else to you?

Unless it’s short for “paranormal botanist” which suggests they are not just naturalists but supernaturalists.

Questions for the Botanists

Nature Talk

jeanphilippeb February 1, 2023, 7:41pm 55

Onobrychis viciifolia one-seeded pods from this observation.

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