365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Monday, May 18, 2020
Life-List Plant - Barbarea Orthoceras
Day 218: Being in voluntary lockdown has provided me with a good reason to explore the area around my home more thoroughly than ever before. Even so, the last thing I expected was to find a "new" plant in my own extended "back yard." This morning, I went for a somewhat longer ramble to follow a little-known and little-used social trail down to the river. As I turned to come back up the hill, a little yellow flower caught my eye. "And who are you, little guy?" I said. "You have funny long siliques and an odd little flower, and those leaves...you're not a mustard and you're not a Rorippa. Who the heck are you, anyway?" I suspected the poor thing of being a weed, if the truth be told, but after referring to several different sources, I confirmed its identity as a native species, Barbarea orthoceras, aka American wintercress rocket. It's remotely related to the mustards, being a member of the Brassicaceae which also includes such things as turnips, collards and kale as well as Cardamine, Alyssum and the drabas. Collectively known as crucifers, all Brassicas exhibit four-petalled flowers. That was the main clue which put me on the path toward identification of the plant as Barbarea. As a sidebar, Washington has been having a flurry of small earthquakes this last week, but the last one you felt might have been me jumping up and down shouting, "I got a new plant! I got a new plant!"
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