In the field

 I teach two field labs this week, so I decided I better run out to the sites today and check up, just in case the Corps of Engineers decided to burn one of (requiring using an alternate site).

The first one I went to is the "big" one out on the lake - this is where I'm taking the systematics class on Thursday, mainly as a "gee whiz" and pointing-out-plants-they've-seen-in-the-lecture slides. (For example: this is the only place I can take students that has honey locusts and sumac)

I was surprised at the number of butterflies out already - I don't know if some emerge from the chrysales/cocoons in the spring, or if some overwinter. I know the monarchs migrate but as far as I know, they are the only ones.

I couldn't photograph most of them; they move too fast. I saw some sulphurs and a couple American Buckeyes, and some of the small blue ones (tailed blue, maybe?) and a couple random fritillaries. 

But I tried to get a photo of the monarch, because their return feels like spring is really here finally:

On the way back in to town, I stopped off to vote (city council election; someone I know and actually support is running for a seat so I had the rare pleasure of voting FOR someone I expect will do the job well if he wins, rather than merely voting AGAINST the worst of the choices). I was wearing a shirt with butterflies on it and the poll worker (the place was not busy) commented on it and asked if there was a monarch on it (there was) and I commented I had seen some today. "Oh yes, "she said, "I know they're coming through, they're all over the flowers at my ranch outside of town" so it was a nice small moment of human connection, and it also verifies for me that the migration has begun. 

I also saw a FEW things flowering

These blackberries frustrate me. I know they are a Rubus, but I can't find one of the native species around here that seems to match them perfectly. Maybe it's escaped from cultivation? But that seems unlikely; I've collected fruit from them and tasted them and they have very little flavor, and you'd think something people chose to cultivate would taste good. They are also very invasive.  The best guess I have is Rubus oklahomus - it's definitely not Rubus trivialis, the flowers are different and that would have GOOD berries on it. 

However, a known issue with Rubus is it hybridizes like whoa, so what I'm seeing could be some kind of funky hybrid, which also might explain the not-very-tasty berries. (Hybridization sometimes messes stuff up)

One of our wild grapes; those are the flowers not quite out of bud yet.

A tiny bluet - these are quite common here. Again, I haven't looked closely enough to be SURE they are Houstonia caerulea (the common species, also known as Quaker-ladies) but it seems likely. They are, surprisingly enough, in the same family as coffee is. 

I also saw a hummingbird moth but it was way too fast to try to photograph, I just saw the big tan and cream striped body and wings as it zipped by. So those are out, too (They are a type of sphinx moth and are fairly common here).

When I got back to campus to pick up the exams I graded this evening, I spotted a yellow flower in the lawn, and surprisingly? It's a composite (Asteraceae). By far the majority of these flower in the fall. (I do have what is probably daisy fleabane in my garden - I need to pick some and take it in and key it out to be sure). But this was something different. I *think* it's a groundsel (Senecio, or has recently been renamed Packera). 

It's got two leaf morphologies - the basal leaves are rounded, the ones on the stem are dissected (you can kind of see the frond shape). My best guess (again, without dissecting a flowering head) is Packera plattensis, which seems likely for this area. 

In a lot of cases, for the class I'm teaching - undergraduates not concentrating in biology - I would be super happy if they learned the general important families, and within the families, some of the common genera. Packera is not quite as common as the asters or goldenrods are so I wouldn't expect them to know this beyond "it's in the Asteraceae." I keep telling them if they can come up with a solid family identification, actually keying out the plant using a key is about fifty times easier than if you don't know where to start. Though the Asteraceae is STILL hard because there are so many similar appearing plants. In fact, some botanists joke these are known as the DYCs - for "darned* yellow composites" (composites is the old family name of Asteraceae). Kind of like how birders refer to "LBJs" or "little brown jobs" for some of the warblers and sparrows that are hard to tell apart.

(*some might use a stronger d-word to describe them)

I went to the other site but just quickly, just to be sure my ecology class could do the tree sampling there; there wasn't anything so very out of the ordinary and I was not looking for unusual things in flower.