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| lupin |
I am a
person of nature and have been all my life.
I have hunted, fished, trapped, canoed, been a survival instructor and a
Maine State Guide.
One of my
pleasures is identifying plants as I take walks.
In the military as a survival instructor I needed
to be familiar with edible plants and poisonous plants. After I retired from the military my wife
and I attended college. One of the
courses we most enjoyed was field botany, and I have remained interested in plant
identification ever since.
I don’t go
out looking for plants; but as I take walks I enjoy knowing the names of the
plants I see in bloom, and if I find one I am not familiar with I look it
up.
There are
many plant and wildflower identification books on the market and most try to
make identifications by color – this can be a hit or miss. The absolute best wildflower identification
guide available in my estimation is Newcomb’s
Wildflower Guide by Lawrence Newcomb.
Once you master the key you are almost guaranteed of identifying any
wildflower, shrub or vine you find.
The old Newcomb’s
guide I have had for years was written for the north-east; but I have used this
guide from Maine and Kentucky, across Canada and Alaska and have always been
able to find any plant in question.
If you are
walking in rural Maine at this time of year you might wonder what plant is
turning most of the fields yellow:
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| Among the ferns |
It is
Silvery Cinquefoil. I know: because it
is in Newcomb’s.
Have a good
day
the Ol’Buzzard
