Newcomb's Wildflower Guide, 1st Attempt
I've had a copy of Newcomb's Wildflower Guide for a while but I have never taken the time to really use it, which is a shame. One of the biggest hindrances for me is the lack of a pdf or app. It would really just be so easy to digitize the system used in the book. It would mean that, like many of my field guides, I could have them right in my phone. I have even spent snow days scanning field guides so that I can have them in my phone when I need them (both A Field Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Massachusetts and Forest Trees of Maine).
My first attempt with Newcomb's was to take pictures of the plants and then using the book attempt to identify the plants. This is really hard for a beginner. You really need to have the plant in hand to fully identify it. Of course, if it possible to do it without the plant but it is much easier with the plant in hand.
If I go through the plants that I have observed I have many of the early spring ephemerals and a few others. The first plant that I attempted was a honeysuckle which grows around my delimited site. Without flowers or any real knowledge of how to use Newcomb's I outsourced my id to iNaturalist. I'm not sure if it is accurate and will wait until the plant flowers to really figure it out.
Next was TRAILING ARBUTUS another plant that I wasn't familiar with and "cheated" by using iNaturalist. Once I saw the id, I did remember this one and felt confident about the identification. That same day I saw my first of the year YELLOW TROUT LILY. This was one that I was very familiar with as I always see it as the first real sign of spring.
The next few plants that I id'ed where all plants that I was very familiar with WOOD ANEMONE, RED TRILLIUM, and violets. It wasn't until I started to really use the Newcomb's that I realized that there were so many violets, so the first few I saw I just thought violet and moved on. It was with some of the pictures of violets that I attempted to first really use Newcomb's. It didn't go well.
I went out during a break at work and took some pictures of flowers and their plants. I then took some more after work. Later I attempted to key them with just the pictures. In just about every case just enough information was missing from the pictures alone that id was very difficult. I had to relay on looking the plants up and then using the index. It was a mess.
Now today (May 11), I sneaked out from work with Newcomb's in hand. I didn't have a lot of time but I was able to check on a violet I had seen yesterday and believe that it is SMOOTH WHITE VIOLET. I also worked with DWARF GINSENG and AZURE BLUET (the later of which I new but I wanted to practice). Now I'm hooked. It is so much fun to figure out what the plants are that I have been seeing for so long but not taking the time to identify.
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