From left, Colleen Earp, Lindsey Kilbourn, Darlene Coleman, Judy Bartlett and Emily Huertas. Photo by Lora Steiner.

On September 4th eleven members of HMN Cohorts 8 & 9, plus two recent transfers from the Rihanna Chapter, led by Judy Bartlett and Eunice Sill, spent a beautiful evening at Cowbane Prairie Natural Area Preserve. Judy and Eunice divided us into two groups in order to practice using the Flora of Virginia smartphone app to identify species with the graphic and dichotomous keys it provides.  

The group this writer joined began with a plant known and loved by many Virginians. On beginning our “identification” with the Graphic key we noticed that the app had a different sequence of screens for various users’ fully updated phones, for reasons we couldn’t immediately determine. (I’ve since made an inquiry through the support page at floraofvirginia.org.) In spite of this issue we worked our way through prompted selections among plant groups, county -or GPS- location, moisture & light regimes, and characteristics of leaves, stems and flowers that didn’t overly tax our collective knowledge. Within 5 minutes we were able to make a positive and confident id: Lobelia cardinalis!  

Next we attempted to take the longer route through the dichotomous key to learn the species of a strongly scented specimen with square stems and a spike of minute lavender- tinted flowers on top. Mint, yes, but which mint? At this point it must be said that the group further dichotomized.  

•   Group2a: Willing to distinguish between such features as inferior vs. superior ovaries or actinomorphic vs. zygomorphic calyxes. Hand lens required! The frustration of working through a multitude of couplets to a solution that is clearly incorrect recalled!!

•   Group2b: Not as above; may express a strong preference for Seek or other apps using photo-recognition software, or be captivated by the diversity and uniqueness of the carefully protected habitat. Happy to wander over the site with like-minded folks sharing other, perhaps more general plant knowledge.

After an hour and a half of discovery and communion we headed back through the gloaming with increased comprehension of the Flora app’s usefulness to our individual approaches to plant knowledge, and with lots of appreciation for Cowbane as a thoughtfully managed preserve of one of the rarest of eastern habitats.

Additional pictures of beautiful Cowbane Prairie Natural Area Preserve can be found HERE

Wick Fary, Current student Cohort 9.