Wayland Walks Participants ID Plants from Turkey Hill

Back at the church the participants hopped on the Internet with their varied devices (smart phones, laptops, tablets),and Farnsworth introduced one part of GoBotany, a richly illustrated interactive key to over 3,500 native and naturalized plants of our region developed by the New England Wild Flower Society’s definitive on-line Flora of New England, funded by the National Science Foundation. 

Digitally tagging, the group identified a Cinnamon Fern and a Field Hedge Nettle, which the youngest of the group had bravely identified as Field Mint (close! nettles are in the mint family). The program, which can be found at gobotany.newenglandwild.org, also has a linked dichotomous key for more experienced botanists, and PlantShare, where plant enthusiasts, teachers and students can share discoveries, and develop collaborative checklists for sites.

Wayland Walks, which organized the workshop, thanks Farnsworth for helping us see the forest for the trees and invites everyone to come to the next two walks: First, an interfaith walk while picking apples at the Heard Farm Conservation area on Aug. 31 at 10 a.m. and second, a wild edible foraging walk with guide Russ Cohen on Oct. 22, at 3:30 p.m., location TBA. More info about Wayland Walks can be found at blog.transitionwayland.org/category/wwalks