tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post8827861821737750750..comments2024-02-06T10:31:24.491-07:00Comments on Watching the World Wake Up: 3 Excellent Man-Dates, And 2 Cool Flowering ShrubsWatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-70976178353752863952009-06-06T23:34:17.243-06:002009-06-06T23:34:17.243-06:00Another great and timely post. Last wknd when I w...Another great and timely post. Last wknd when I was enjoying Round Valley perfection on my bike, I noted two shrubs that were perfuming the air with white smelly flowers, but I could not identify them, for it has been 16 years since my college horticulture class. They must have been serviceberry and chokecherry. Thanks!Lucyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10896006691904225007noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-76483654578743210362009-06-04T20:58:34.776-06:002009-06-04T20:58:34.776-06:00Excellent. And funny. I mentioned you in my Morm...Excellent. And funny. I mentioned you in my Mormon News blog, themormonsarecoming.blogspot.com.Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07482286413812215753noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-53986327105400372832009-06-04T14:02:09.955-06:002009-06-04T14:02:09.955-06:00Christopher- have at it (the blackberries.) I’m st...Christopher- have at it (the blackberries.) I’m still mentally trashed from trying to understand the taxonomy of this one little local shrub. According to my local botany-professor friend, we have a local species-happy floral taxonomist at the rival university here in Utah (of whom he speaks with exasperation.) The “softness” of the whole definition of species has been one of the biggest eye-openers of this whole project for a layman like me.<br /><br />KB- whew, big question. I could do a whole post on this one. I usually start with a guidebook or peek at the Wikipedia entry, which gives me the plant’s basic phylogenetic tree. Then I google like crazy, looking for published scientific papers about that plant, and/or google-books excerpts of books I probably wouldn’t purchase (typically a $100+ textbook where I’m interested in 2-4 pages.) A typical search string will be the plant’s latin name, plus the word “chromosome”, or maybe “locus”, “allele”, or “polyploidy” or somesuch. Sometimes I get lucky and find the whole paper (like I did with this post, and the <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/06/all-about-moose-part-1-newer-than.html" rel="nofollow">Moose</a> <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/06/all-about-moose-part-2-subspecies-and-3.html" rel="nofollow">posts</a> last year); usually I just get the abstract (I don’t have access to any of the published journal libraries- Springerlink, JStor or BioOne, etc. ) Other times I’ll find a slide set that some researcher gave at a conference (which helped me with posts on <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/04/dandelions-are-way-cool-part-2-genetics.html" rel="nofollow">Dandelions</a>, <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/08/unbearable-lightness-of-aspen-part-2.html" rel="nofollow">Aspen</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/01/its-called-limber-for-reason.html" rel="nofollow">Limber Pine</a>.)<br /><br />Every once in a while, I ask for help. <a href="http://foothillsfancies.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">Sally</a>’s been terrific, as have many others who’ve provided help on everything from oaks, pinon, moss and lichens. Bottom line: it’s a lot of work, but I almost always enjoy doing it.<br /><br />KKris- Yes, Mrs. Kanyon was right about me- I’m a feckless 2-timer. (But hopefully I got some credit with her now that I started putting the PG-13 labels on my spicier tangents!) I’m emailing you now about a time/day to ride Pinebrook. Maybe I can get you up early this Saturday… I almost got into the jams on this post, decided to save it for later in the season, when the berries develop.<br /><br />Phil- Oh, I have gay friends. It’s black friends that are so hard to make here in Utah. This place is so lily-white, every time I go to the mall it feels like a White Power convention…Watcherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-27661169401176079412009-06-04T10:47:58.906-06:002009-06-04T10:47:58.906-06:00White people also like having gay friends.White people also like <a href="http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/03/14/88-having-gay-friends/" rel="nofollow">having gay friends</a>.Phil O.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14499273759083108847noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-8714540218169974252009-06-04T09:33:54.361-06:002009-06-04T09:33:54.361-06:00I thought I was your next Pinebrook date. But I gu...I thought I was your next Pinebrook date. But I guess JEM was just a one night stand. My wife warned me about you. ;-)<br /><br />Fun post, the man-date stuff read like a Seinfeld.<br /><br />But seriously, I'm still interested to ride the Pinebrook trails. I could do a Wed morning, if you don't mind a 3rd wheel (pair of wheels?).<br /><br />Good plant post too. My Mom made chokecherry jam a few times - pretty tasty. Looks like serviceberries are edible too, but not sure I've tasted them.KanyonKrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01954169751206336705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-3468692008387742902009-06-04T06:48:58.334-06:002009-06-04T06:48:58.334-06:00Just curious, I love reading the details of plants...Just curious, I love reading the details of plants on your blog. I'm wondering if you have a favorite source of information?<br /><br />I know that we have chokecherry around here but I don't think that it's blooming yet.KBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16885661679762446456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-59432641299450688462009-06-04T06:28:36.219-06:002009-06-04T06:28:36.219-06:00Those comments about Amelanchier taxonomy remind m...Those comments about <i>Amelanchier</i> taxonomy remind me that I really must write about the blackberry situation some day (unless, of course, you beat me to it). The reason why you'll normally see the apomictic blackberries referred to as "<i>Rubus fruticosus</i> aggregate" is that there are a simply huge number of described species, most of them probably near-indistinguishable. I forget just how many, but its certainly up in the triple digits. We were told by a lecturer when I was an undergrad that some guy over in Europe just kept on describing new species, drawing the distinctions between them finer and finer. I'm not sure what stopped him - maybe someone finally hit him with a brick.Christopher Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11075565866351612441noreply@blogger.com