I've been having a great time with data and spreadsheets this week. I am very interested in tracking which species occur on my land from year to year.
My main focus is plants, so I've started with those. I do all my data collection in a wonderful, social nature platform called iNaturalist. I exported all my plant observations and did some cleanup so I have a spreadsheet with a row for each plant species.
This gave me lists of:
- Species I recorded in both 2019 and 2020
- New finds this year
- Species I recorded last year but not yet this year. These break out into:
- Very common species I hadn't yet bothered to photo this year, but want to for completeness
- Fall-blooming species that haven't appeared yet
- A few species species like Watershield (Brasenia schreberi) which I have looked for but been unable to re-locate
- One harmful, invasive species, Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), which I uprooted last year and am pleased has not returned
- A list of species I believe I have observed but may need more data on in order to get confirmation of my ID
Here are the new finds so far this year:
- False Nettle (Boehmeria cylindrica)
- Narrow-fruited Water-starwort (Callitriche palustris)
- Bladder Sedge (Carex intumescens)
- Mouse-ear Chickweed (Cerastium fontanum)
- Virgin's-bower (Clematis virginiana)
- Alternate-leaved Dogwood (Cornus alternifolia)
- Beechdrops (Epifagus virginiana)
- Rough Bedstraw (Galium asprellum)
- Fragrant Bedstraw (Galium triflorum)
- Narrowleaf Gentian (Gentiana linearis)
- Rough Hawkweed (Hieracium scabrum)
- Shining Clubmoss (Huperzia lucidula)
- Sheep Laurel (Kalmia angustifolia)
- Common Duckweed (Lemna minor)
- Bladder-pod Lobelia (Lobelia inflata)
- Running Pine (Lycopodium clavatum)
- American Bugleweed (Lycopus americanus)
- New York Fern (Parathelypteris noveboracensis)
- American Jumpseed (Persicaria virginiana)
- Trembling Aspen (Populus tremuloides)
- Common Selfheal (Prunella vulgaris)
- Common Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum)
- Allegheny Blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis)
- Black Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis)
- Wild Raisin (Viburnum nudum)
I compared my species list with the state of New Hampshire's official list for Hillsborough County and identified several that weren't recorded as present in the county.
I emailed the NH state botanist who asked me to collect, press, and label (voucher) samples to deposit in the University of New Hampshire's Hodgdon Herbarium so they could be officially added to the list.
- Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis) DONE
- Broad-Leaved Helleborine (Epipactis helleborine) DONE
- Dwarf St. John's Wort (Hypericum mutilum) DONE
- American Jumpseed (Persicaria virginiana) DONE
- American Groundnut (Apios americana) TO DO
- Black Ash (Fraxinus nigra) TO DO
- Common Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) TO DO
- White Meadowsweet (Spiraea alba) TO DO
- Common Duckweed (Lemna minor) TO DO
- Allegheny Blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis) TO DO
- Black Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) TO DO
- Heath Speedwell (Veronica officinalis) TO DO