Diario de delphiniumgriffith

It is our second day beginning to identify plants in the six plots of the CURB Tidal Marsh. Starting with the plot the farthest away from the bridge, closest to the Yonkers Paddle Club, we found many new unidentifiable kinds of grass and leafy plants. It is rather hard to really identify these plants unless they are flowering, but we are slowly making progress. We are finding mostly native plants, which is what we expected, however, there are a few non-native plants and grasses such as the ribwort plantain. We also saw a monarch butterfly feeding on the milkweed.

This is our third week of collecting data for our CURB Tidal Marsh Plant Field Guide. The identifications continue, mostly to great success. The grasses and sedges are proving hard. Though that's to be expected. Each plant guide online or book that I read seems to tell a different story in regards to the grasses. There is now a collection of grass stems, leaves, and seeds drying out on a shelf in our office. As if somehow they will tell me what they are as time goes by.
Another process that is happening is the art of waiting. Waiting for the plants to bloom. Many of the plants that we have observed are almost flowering and it is very important for our guide book to have the whole picture of the plant. So we have been keeping a close eye on the buds of the milkweeds, butterfly milkweed, the cranesbill, and many others.
We have put many of the plants we found in our guide book with good information about the plant, its family and growing conditions. It will be interesting to see if we decide to put every plant we find in the marsh or if we will trim it down for the sake of practicality or native plant vs. invasive.