citizen science

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Weeds of Boise: iNaturalist Observations

So far, the lists of weeds at each of the Weeds of Boise sites look pretty similar, with several weed species showing up at nearly every site and other species only occasionally making an appearance. This isn’t a surprise really. The flora of any region typically has several species that are dominant, along with species that occur less frequently. Wild urban flora – or in other words, the naturalized weeds in urban areas – may follow a similar pattern. My unscientific and infrequent surveys, all of which have been pretty close to where I live, aren’t yet representative of the Boise area as a whole. However, something like iNaturalist might help with that. For this reason, I took a look at iNaturalist observations to get a better idea as to which species dominate the wild urban flora of Boise, Idaho.

iNaturalist is a website and app that allows users to identify, map, and share observations of living things with the rest of the world. It has been in use for over a decade and is easily one of the most popular community science, biodiversity mapping, and identification apps around. Even though it is not the primary mission of iNaturalist, the information gathered from user observations is frequently used in scientific research and conservation efforts. With over 80 million observations worldwide, iNaturalist offers a pretty decent picture of the plants, animals, fungi, and other living things found in just about any given location. You don’t even need to a registered user to browse the observations and find out what has been spotted near you or across the globe.

In order to come up with a list of weeds that have been observed in Boise by iNaturalist users, I entered “Boise City Metropolitan Area, ID, USA” into the Location field. It is possible to narrow your search to individual neighborhoods or even broaden your search to include a larger area. Clicking on the map allows you to see the area represented in your search. For my purposes, I figured that the number of observations would change if the area covered was either smaller or larger, but the list of weed species would largely remain the same. After you select your search area, you can filter out the results. Clicking on the plant icon limits the search to plants. At first I selected only introduced plants, but that seemed to eliminate a few of the plants that I would consider weeds, so instead I scanned through the entire list of plants and made a list of each of the weed species and how many times each had been observed.

There are of course limitations to using iNaturalist to create species lists, the main one being that you are relying on decisions made by iNaturalist users when it comes to what gets reported. In my case, in which I’m looking for a list of weed species found in Boise, I know there are plenty of weeds that iNaturalist users either aren’t noticing or aren’t bothering to report. The reported observations are also not likely to match the frequency at which they occur in the environment. Still, it’s interesting to see what gets reported and how often. It’s also interesting to see reports of things that I haven’t seen before. By clicking on individual observations, you can see where those observations were made, which means I know where I can go to find species I haven’t yet encountered.

What follows is a list of the top 25 weeds in the Boise area based on the number of iNaturalist observations, along with photos of some of the most reported weeds. A few of the species on the list, like cornflower, straddle the line between weed and desirable plant. I included them anyway because they are known to be naturalized outside of garden borders, even though some of the reported observations may have been intentionally planted within garden borders.

bittersweet nightshade (Solanum dulcamara)
pink-flowered field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis)
great mullein (Verbascum thapsus)

Top 25 Weeds in the Boise City Metropolitan Area According to iNaturalist Observations (as of September 21, 2021)

  1. great mullein (Verbascum thapsus) – 110 
  2. common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) – 98
  3. redstem stork’s-bill (Erodium cicutarium) – 83
  4. chicory (Cichorium intybus) – 62
  5. heart-podded hoary cress (Lepidium draba) – 61
  6. cornflower (Centaurea cyanus) – 58
  7. rush skeletonweed (Chondrilla juncea) – 56
  8. purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) – 49
  9. bittersweet nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) – 47
  10. alfalfa (Medicago sativa) – 46
  11. common soapwort (Saponaria officinalis) – 43
  12. dwarf mallow (Malva neglecta) – 42
  13. donkey tail (Euphorbia myrsinites) – 40 
  14. poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) – 39
  15. field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) – 39 
  16. bulbous meadow-grass (Poa bulbosa) – 39
  17. yellow salsify (Tragopogon dubius) – 38
  18. crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum) – 37 
  19. cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) – 36
  20. moth mullein (Verbascum blattaria) – 36 
  21. hound’s-tongue (Cynoglossum officinale) – 31
  22. Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) – 30
  23. catnip (Nepeta cataria) – 29
  24. white clover (Trifolium repens) – 29
  25. yellow iris (Iris pseudacorus) – 28
Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia)
catnip (Nepeta cataria)
common soapwort (Saponaria officinalis)
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Highlights from the Western Society of Weed Science Annual Meeting

Earlier this month, I went to Garden Grove, California to attend the 71st annual meeting of the Western Society of Weed Science. My trip was funded by an Education and Enrichment Award presented by the Pahove Chapter of the Idaho Native Plant Society. It was a great opportunity for a weeds-obsessed plant geek like myself to hang out with a bunch of weed scientists and learn about their latest research. What follows are a few highlights and takeaways from the meeting.

General Session

Apart from opening remarks and news/business-y stuff, the general session featured two invited speakers: soil ecologist Lydia Jennings and historian David Marley. Lydia’s talk was titled “Land Acknowledgement and Indigenous Knowledge in Science.” She started by sharing a website called Native Land, which features an image of the Earth overlayed with known “borders” of indigenous territories. By entering your address, you can see a list of the tribes that historically used the land you now inhabit. It is important for us to consider the history of the land we currently live and work on. Lydia then compared aspects of western science and indigenous science, pointing out ways they differ as well as ways they can be used in tandem. By collaborating with tribal nations, weed scientists can benefit from traditional ecological knowledge. Such knowledge, which has historically gone largely unrecognized in the scientific community, should receive more attention and acknowledgement.

David Marley was the comic relief. Well-versed in the history of Disneyland, he humorously presented a series of stories involving its creation. Little of what he had to say related to weed science, which he openly admitted along the way; however, one weeds related story stood out. Due to a lack of funds, the early years of Tomorrowland featured few landscape plants. To make up for that, Walt Disney had signs with fake Latin names created for some of the weeds.

Weeds of Range and Natural Areas

I spent the last half of the first day in the “Weeds of Range and Natural Areas” session where I learned about herbicide ballistic technology (i.e. killing plants from a helicopter with a paintball gun loaded with herbicide). This is one of the ways that Miconia calvescens invasions in Hawaii are being addressed. I also learned about research involving plant debris left over after logging. When heavy amounts of debris are left in place, scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius) infestations are thwarted. There was also a talk about controlling escaped garden loosestrife (Lysimachia punctata) populations in the Seattle area, as well as a few talks about efforts to control annual grasses like cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) in sagebrush steppes. Clearly there are lots of weed issues in natural areas, as that only covers about half the talks.

Basic Biology and Ecology

On the morning of the second day, the “Basic Biology and Ecology” session held a discussion about weeds and climate change. As climate changes, weeds will adapt and find new locations to invade. Perhaps some weeds won’t be as problematic in certain areas, but other species are sure to take their place. Understanding the changes that are afoot and the ways that weeds will respond to them is paramount to successful weed management. This means documenting the traits of every weed species, including variations between and among populations of each species, so that predictions can be made about their behavior. It also means anticipating new weed species and determining ways in which weeds might exploit new conditions.

No doubt there is much to learn in order to adequately manage weeds in a changing climate. An idea brought up during the discussion that I was particularly intrigued by was using citizen scientists to help gather data about weeds. Similar to other organizations that collect phenological data from the public on a variety of species, a website could be set up for citizen scientists to report information about weeds in their area, perhaps something like this project in New Zealand. Of course, there are already a series of apps available in North America for citizen scientists to report invasive species sightings, so it seems this is already happening to some degree.

Teaching and Technology Transfer

A highlight of the afternoon’s “Teaching and Technology Transfer” session was learning about the Wyoming Restoration Challenge hosted by University of Wyoming Extension. This was a three year long contest in which thirteen teams were given a quarter-acre plot dominated by cheatgrass with the challenge to restore the plant community to a more productive and diverse state. Each team developed and carried out their own strategy and in the end were judged on a series of criteria including cheatgrass and other weed control, plant diversity, forage production, education and outreach, and scalability. Preliminary results can be seen here; read more about the challenge here and here.

And so much more…

Because multiple sessions were held simultaneously, I was unable to attend every talk. I also had to leave early on the third day, so I missed those talks as well. However, I did get a chance to sit in on a discussion about an increasingly troubling topic, herbicide-resistant weeds, which included a summary of regional listening sessions that have been taking place in order to bring more attention to the subject and establish a dialog with those most affected by it.

One final highlight was getting to meet up with Heather Olsen and talk to her briefly about her work in updating the Noxious Weed Field Guide for Utah. This work was aided by the Invasive Plant Inventory and Early Detection Prioritization Tool, which is something I hope to explore further.

If you are at all interested in weeds of the western states, the Western Society of Weed Science is a group you should meet. They are fun and friendly people who really know their weeds.

See Also: Highlights from the Alaska Invasive Species Workshop 

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Highlights from the Alaska Invasive Species Workshop

This October 24-26th I was in Anchorage, Alaska for the 18th annual Alaska Invasive Species Workshop. The workshop is organized by the Committee for Noxious and Invasive Pests Management and University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension. It is a chance for people involved in invasive species management in Alaska – or just interested in the topic – to learn about the latest science, policies, and management efforts within the state and beyond. I am not an Alaska resident – nor had I ever been there until this trip – but my sister lives there, and I was planning a trip to visit her and her family, so why not stop in to see what’s happening with invasive species while I’m at it?

What follows are a few highlights from each of the three days.

Day One

The theme of the workshop was “The Legacy of Biological Invasions.” Ecosystems are shaped by biotic and abiotic events that occurred in the past, both recent and distant. This is their legacy. Events that take place in the present can alter ecosystem legacies. Invasive species, as one speaker said in the introduction, can “break the legacy locks of an ecosystem,” changing population dynamics of native species and altering ecosystem functions for the foreseeable future. Alaska is one of the few places on earth that is relatively pristine, with comparably little human disturbance and few introduced species. Since they are at an early stage in the invasion curve for most things, Alaska is in a unique position to eradicate or contain many invasive species and prevent future introductions. Coming together to address invasive species issues and protect ecosystem legacies will be part of the human legacy in Alaska.

The keynote address was delivered by Jamie Reaser, Executive Director of the National Invasive Species Council and author of several books. She spoke about the Arctic and its vulnerability to invasive species due to increased human activity, climate change, and scant research. To address this and other issues in the Arctic, the Arctic Council put together the Arctic Biodiversity Assessment, and out of that came the Arctic Invasive Alien Species Strategy and Action Plan. Reaser shared some thoughts about how government agencies and conservation groups can come together to share information and how they can work with commercial industries to address the threat of invasive species. She stressed that Alaska can and should play a leadership role in these efforts.

Later, Reaser gave a presentation about the National Invasive Species Council, including its formation and some of the work that it is currently doing. She emphasized that invasive species are a “people issue” – in that the actions and decisions we make both create the problem and address the problem – and by working together “we can do this.”

Day Two

Most of the morning was spent discussing Elodea, Alaska’s first invasive, submerged, freshwater, aquatic plant. While it has likely been in the state for a while, it was only recognized as a problem within the last decade. It is a popular aquarium plant that has been carelessly dumped into lakes and streams. It grows quickly and tolerates very cold temperatures, photosynthesizing under ice and snow. It propagates vegetatively and is spread to new sites by attaching itself to boats and float planes. Its dense growth can crowd out native vegetation and threaten fish habitat, as well as make navigating by boat difficult and landing float planes dangerous. Detailed reports were given about how organizations across the state have been monitoring and managing Elodea populations, including updates on how treatments have worked so far and what is being planned for the future. A bioeconomic risk analysis conducted by Tobias Schwörer was a featured topic of discussion.

After lunch I took a short break from the conference to walk around downtown Anchorage, so I missed a series of talks about environmental DNA. I returned in time to hear an interesting talk about bird vetch (Vicia cracca). Introduced to Alaska as a forage crop, bird vetch has become a problematic weed on farms, orchards, and gardens as well as in natural areas. It is a perennial vine that grows quickly, produces copious seeds, and spreads rhizomatously. Researchers at University of Alaska Fairbanks found that compared to five native legume species, bird vetch produced twice the amount of biomass in the presence of both native and non-native soil microbes, suggesting that bird vetch is superior when it comes to nitrogen fixation. Further investigation found that, using only native nitrogen-fixing bacteria, bird vetch produced significantly more root nodules than a native legume species, indicating that it is highly effective at forming relationships with native soil microbes. Additional studies found that the ability of bird vetch to climb up other plants, thereby gaining access to more sunlight and smothering host plants, contributed to its success as an invasive plant.

 Seed pods of bird vetch (Vicia cracca) in Fairbanks, Alaska

Day Three

The final day of the workshop was a veritable cornucopia of topics, including risk assessments for invasive species, profiles of new invasive species, updates on invasive species control projects, discussions about early detection and rapid response (EDRR), and talks about citizen science and community involvement. My head was swimming with impressions and questions. Clearly there are no easy answers when it comes to invasive species, and like other complex, global issues (made more challenging as more players are involved), the increasingly deep well of issues and concerns to resolve is not likely to ever run dry.

Future posts will dig further into some of the discussions that were had on day three. For now, here are a few resources that I gathered throughout the workshop:

Interpretive sign at Alaska Botanical Garden in Anchorage, Alaska

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Why Awkward? Why Botany? Why Now?

Have you ever wondered why this blog is called Awkward Botany? I have. Naming things can be difficult, and there are days that I question whether Awkward Botany was the right choice and if instead another name would have been more appropriate. Most days I am happy with the name, but I also perceive that there might be questions about where it came from and what it means. Or maybe no one cares? Either way, I figured I would start the year off by putting this out there. It may or may not be of interest to anyone, but so be it. Rest assured that regular programming will resume shortly.

Why Awkward?

Awkward is a word that best describes my general state of being. I am uncomfortable in virtually all social situations. The degree to which discomfort manifests itself varies depending on the circumstances, but it is always there. Anxious is another fitting word to describe me. On the surface I may appear calm and collected, but my mind is constantly racing. It’s hard to relax.

I am a high level introvert, and there was a time when this really bothered me. I didn’t like feeling so shy, nervous, and bumbling. I didn’t like that my voice got shaky every time I talked in front of a group of two or more people (no matter how well I knew them). I wanted to be able to make a phone call or start up a conversation without first having to rehearse what I was going to say a dozen times in my head. I envied people who could socialize so freely and who could dance like no one was watching even when plenty of people were. I saw my shell as a curse and thought I was defective because of it.

These feelings haven’t gone away, but they have waned. In my adult years I have grown to accept, even embrace, my awkwardness and introversion. I’m not particularly thrilled about being this way, but I find ways to celebrate it. Claiming the awkward title is one way that I do that. It is nothing to be ashamed of, despite at times feeling shamed for it. Just acknowledging that fact makes tiptoeing out of my comfort zone that much easier.

Awkward can also mean amateurish or inexpert. I am a degree holding and professional horticulturist and I have taken a number of graduate level plant science courses, but I certainly don’t claim to be an expert botanist. I am passionate about botany, and I love to study and explore it, but I am not on the same level as professional botanists. I could be someday, but that isn’t really the point. I would rather illuminate the amateur aspect, the part an enthusiast can play, the role of the citizen scientist…or citizen botanist in this case. The point being that anyone can join in the conversation regardless of their credentials; all that is required is passion, enthusiasm, and a willingness to learn (and to admit when you’re wrong). That is why I have settled on the tagline, “citizen botany for the phytocurious.” Perhaps this approach will inspire other awkward entities to emerge, like awkward history, awkward herpetology, awkward astronomy, awkward linguistics… Just a thought.

Why Botany?

I am unapologetically obsessed with plants. It is not something I fully realized about myself until I was in my twenties; still it feels like it must be in my DNA. I spend significant portions of each day thinking about plants, reading about plants, writing about plants, and working with plants. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. If I am this taken by plants, then why not botany?

But why should people care about plants? Those who already find themselves fascinated by them don’t really need an answer to this question, and the space it would take to enumerate the myriad reasons why plants matter is more than I want to take up in a single post. Suffice it to say that if plants were not around, we would not be around. And if the vital functions of plants don’t convince you to care, just imagine a world without green things and ask yourself if that’s a world you’d want to live in. Dr. Chris Martine, a professor of botany at Bucknell University, defends botany famously in an article he wrote for the Huffington Post last summer.

Why Now?

This is a nebulous question, and I could take it in several directions. To simplify things I will address this line of inquiry: why am I blogging now, rather than expressing myself using some other medium (or none at all)?

When I was in the 7th grade, I discovered that I like to write. It feels wired into my DNA the same way my interest in plants does. I have been writing regularly ever since. At first it was just poetry, short stories, and song lyrics. Then when I was in my teenage years, I discovered punk rock and along with that fanzines, or zines for short. I had been envisioning something similar to zines before I knew about them, so once I came across them, I knew that I had to make one. Over the course of about 17 years, I produced at least 66 zines under 9 different titles. My two main titles were Elephant Mess and The Juniper. While I haven’t completely given up on zine writing, I have been on hiatus for about two years now.

juniper 16_edit 2

My hiatus is largely due to the expense of doing zines (photocopies, postage, office supplies, etc.) and the markedly reduced interest in them (a PO Box full of mail used to be a fairly common sight for me; now it never happens). So I blog instead. I hesitate to compare blogs to zines, though. For a seasoned zinester like me, that feels blasphemous. But there are clearly some similarities, and now that the internet has become nearly ubiquitous, for someone who likes to write and publish content regularly, blogs seem like the way to go.

But I don’t see this blog as the end goal either. I love to write, and I have long wanted to be a writer. Maintaining a blog doesn’t necessarily mean I’m on the road to a successful writing career, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. For now, Awkward Botany is where I hang my hat, and I am more than happy to call it home.

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Hundreds of Japanese Plants Threatened with Extinction

Life has existed on earth for at least 3.5 billion years, and during that time there have been five mass extinctions. Currently, we are in the middle of a sixth one. The major difference between the current extinction event and others is that this one is largely human caused, which is pretty upsetting. However, knowing that detail has its upside: if humans are the drivers of this phenomenon, we can also be the ones to put on the brakes.

Biologists have spent the last several decades tracking the current mass extinction, endeavoring to come up with a list of species that have the greatest risks of extinction, as well as lists of species that are at less of a risk, etc. The problem is that factors leading up to extinctions are diverse, and available data for making predictions is lacking, especially temporal data. Recognizing this information gap, researchers in Japan set out to better determine the extinction risk of Japanese flora. Using data from surveys done by lay botanists in 1994-95 and 2003-04, they were able to calculate a trend which indicated that, under current circumstances, between 370 and 561 plant species in Japan will go extinct within the next 100 years.

photo credit: wikimedia commons

photo credit: wikimedia commons

The methods for this study, as described in the findings which appeared last month in PLOS ONE, involved dividing Japan into 3574 sections measuring around 100 square kilometers each and covering about 80% of the country. More than 500 lay botanists tallied the numbers of species that were found in each section during the two time periods. 1735 taxa were recorded, and out of those, 1618 were considered quantifiable and used in the analysis.

Japan is home to a recorded 7087 vascular plant taxa. Historically, the extinction rate of plant taxa in Japan has been around 0.01% per year. According to this study, over the next 100 years the extinction rate will rise to between 0.05 and 0.08% per year. Researchers are organizing a third census in the near future in order to monitor the actual extinction rate and better determine the accuracy of this prediction.

Data collected in these censuses was also used to evaluate the effectiveness of protected areas and determine the need for improvements and expansions. Natural parks cover 14.3% of Japan, but only about half of that area is regulated for biodiversity conservation. The researchers found that protected areas do help to reduce the risk of extinctions, but that their effectiveness is far from optimum and that even expanding protected areas to cover at least 17% of the nation (a target set at the recent Convention on Biological Diversity) would not effectively gaurd threatened plant species from extinction.

In their conclusion, the researchers advise not only to expand protected areas but to improve the “conservation effectiveness” of them, and “to improve the effectiveness of them, we need to know the types of pressures causing population decline in the areas.” They go on to list a few of these pressures, including land development and recreational overuse, and suggest that management schemes should be developed to focus on specific pressures.

Japanese Primrose, Primula japonica (photo credit: eol.org)

Japanese Primrose, Primula japonica (photo credit: eol.org)

One thing I found very interesting and encouraging about this study was the recruitment of lay botanists in collecting data. As stated in the findings, “Monitoring data collected by the public can play an essential role in assessing biodiversity.” I am excited by the growing citizen science movement and hope to see it continue to expand as more and more people become interested in science and eager to add to this body of knowledge. In fact, I consider the term “awkward botany” to be synonymous with citizen, lay, and amateur botany. That is precisely why I chose it as the title for my blog. So, in short, expect more posts involving citizen science in the future.

You can read more about this study on John Platt’s blog Extinction Countdown at Scientific American.