Name all the species you can!

Discussion in 'Plants and Biodiversity Stumpers' started by Michael F, Aug 2, 2005.

  1. Michael F

    Michael F Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    Here's a nice easy one for you all - a photo from northeast England.

    How many species can you identify, and what common thread do you see??

    Michael
     

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  2. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    Conifers of Pacific Slope of North America. Bark of Sitka spruce on right is about the only thing that shows up well enough to be instructive for those new to the topic.
     
  3. Michael F

    Michael F Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    This one is open to old hands as well as those new to the topic!

    Anyone else?!
     
  4. Eric La Fountaine

    Eric La Fountaine Contributor Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    This forum was created more as a challenge for the pros, so images do not have to be representative or even sharp. I guess Ron got the theme part of the challenge. Is it more or less specific than conifers of the pacific slope of NA?

    I am very amateur at ID. I only know a few garden plants and weeds. So inspite of the fact that these plants are native to the area where I live, I am easily stumped. I take it the squarish plates of the bark on the Sitka spruce are a distinctive feature of that tree?
     
  5. Michael F

    Michael F Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    Yes, Ron's right, Pacific coast conifers is the common thread - 'home from home' for a PNW-based forum. There's a few more in there waiting to be got, one at least quite easily, another four with a little bit of inspiration, familiarity and good guesswork (particularly now the theme is known). To make it even easier - there's nothing identifiable in the photo that isn't a Pacific Coast conifer


    Yes!
     
  6. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    Various other important species are recognizable, despite the distance/lack of foliage. Hopefully other viewers will chime in and have some fun with it.
     
  7. jimmyq

    jimmyq Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Hemlock also present
     
  8. Michael F

    Michael F Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    Methinks you know, but didn't say - for the benefit of all, which species of Hemlock? :-)
     
  9. Puddleton

    Puddleton Active Member 10 Years

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    Would I be right saying there is a young Thuja on the left of the screen?
    Aah Correction, Chamaecyparis lawsoniana
     
  10. jimmyq

    jimmyq Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    I am thinking Tsuga heterophylla.
     
  11. Michael F

    Michael F Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    Sorry, no (or are left and right reversed in the southern hemisphere?!?)
     
  12. Michael F

    Michael F Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    Yep!

    Several young specimens, all natural regeneration from larger trees outside the pic. Lower left, behind right of the centre Sitka Spruce, and a few other small ones
     
  13. Michael F

    Michael F Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    With no further comments, the rest are as follows:

    Sequoia sempervirens (foliage top left and extreme bottom right, and the young tree just left of centre) - this one should've been fairly easily gettable. All three are natural regeneration from a couple of large specimens out of the view - they must be among the most northerly self-sown Sequoia anywhere in the world (55°39'N).

    Pseudotsuga menziesii (the orange-brown trunk over to the left edge) - the furrowed bark is just visible with a magnifying glass

    Thuja plicata (the dark green foliage, far right) - not easy

    Abies grandis (the background smooth pale greeny-grey trunk just left of the left-hand foreground Picea sitchensis) - anyone getting this would've been doing some exceptionally good guesswork!
     

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