I_Blog Conference

Did you notice the new badge on the right in the sidebar? I'm attending Iowa's only blog conference, I_Blog, in Nov. 2010. You can read why and how at my personal blog.

NOAH - Networked Organisms and Habitats

A high school classmate showed me this, and I think it is very applicable to geocachers. It's called NOAH, Networked Organisms and Habitats, a NatGeo thing. I don't have a smart phone, but if I did, this would be very cool.

You can learn the official word about it on this page. I think it looks fantastically fun and a great match for cachers since we're out and about all the time. Similar to Project BudBurst but not nearly as focused, players take photos of interesting things they come across. The app takes care of location coords. A field guide is included, but I'm wondering how useful it really is.

100 Species Challenge #68

Specimen #68: Tall Bellflower
Campanulastrum americanum, formerly known as Campanula americana

Native, attracts hummingbirds

photo by me, north Polk County

Found by some kids at wood carving class, thanks to my homeschool production company. The class meets in a rich, moist, hilly woodland area. We meet in a mowed field under a picnic shelter. I'm sure this plant was found in the margin (the part of the forest that meets the open field). Despite its name, there are no bells.

Tall bellflower can be short (2 ft) and tall (5 ft). The books say it gets up to 7 feet tall. The flowers are about an inch wide, five petals, blue.

And I cannot believe this flower has not been mentioned here ever! It's everywhere. In my copy of North American Wildlife, I found this interesting fact:

"In some plants, cross-pollination occurs because the pollen-producing stamens and seed-producing pistil develop in different flowers; sometimes they are even borne on different plants. In others, the two organs are in separate parts of the same flower. In the bellflowers, however, each blossom has two distinct stages of development. First the stamens produce pollen, and the stigmas at the tip of the pistil remain closed. The pollen falls and collects inside the flower, to be picked up on the bodies of bees and carried to older blossoms, where the stigmas have opened. As a last resort, if the pistil remains unfertilized, its tip curls around to pick up a little loose pollen from inside its own flower."

You can see the nature of the flowers' growth here. The flowers open from bottom of the stem to the top of the stem. Lance-like leaves, hairy stem. Like I said above, it seems to be everywhere I go.