alex_abair's Journal

Travel notes for personal future reference and possibly posterity.

Checklist of mints to find:

• Conradina verticillata
• Scutellaria incana
• Mosla scabra
• Pycnanthemum muticum
• Agastache nepetoides
• Stachys arenicola

Day 1

Foster Falls Recreation Area

• Pycnanthemum muticum ( https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/102701817 )
• Mosla scabra
• Scutellaria incana (maybe)

if Pycnanthemum muticum not found:
Fire Tower Road

• Pycnanthemum muticum ( https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/177610583 )

elif Scutellaria incana not found:
Pioneer Trail Trailhead at Cumberland Mountain State Park

• Scutellaria incana

else go straight to Crossville

Day 2

Devil's Breakfast Table, along Daddy's Creek on both sides of Otter Creek Road

• Conradina verticillata (search cobble bars)
• Scutellaria incana
• Mosla scabra, North of the DBT parking ( https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4157885 )

Nemo Trailhead (Emory Creek)

• Conradina verticillata (search cobble bars)
• Scutellaria incana

Jett Bridge Access Obed River Park

• Conradina verticillata (search cobble bars)

Day 3

Dawkins Branch Trail, park by Victor Elementary School

• Agastache nepetoides ( https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/131776142 )

Mannassas National Battlefield

• Potential Stachys arenicola ( https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/86210642 )

Post-trip notes:

• Mosla scabra, Perilla frutescens, Glechoma hederacea, and Clinopodium vulgare are everywhere. They are incredible invasives.
• My suspicions about Pycnanthemum muticum being much more common in cultivation than in the wild were somewhat validated. I found my first seemingly wild population, but I found many more cultivated instances.
• Conradina verticillata was difficult to find, and I'm not sure I would have with my sight alone. Only after stepping on a small shoot did I notice a rosemary/pennyroyal scent. It's difficult to isolate the plant when it's in a vegetative state.
• Why has Agastache nepetoides so difficult to locate!? Top of my list of this fall and next summer.

Travel notes for personal future reference and possibly posterity.

Checklist of mints to find:

• Agastache nepetoides
• Blephilia ciliata
• Callicarpa dichotoma
• Chaiturus marrubiastrum
• Lycopus virginicus
• Meehania cordata
• Monarda brevis
• Monarda clinopodia
• Monarda didyma
• Pycnanthemum incanum
• Pycnanthemum torreyi
• Scutellaria saxatilis
• Scutellaria serrata

Charlottesville City Limits

Ragged Mountain

Pycnanthemum incanum
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/54259255

Lycopus virginicus
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/158914618

Rivanna Trail

Lycopus
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/97491726 Inaccurate
Hedeoma pulegioides
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/151132982 Inaccurate

Avon Street Ext.

Pycnanthemum torreyi
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/61117146
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/61117291

Skyline Drive

Jarman Gap

Scutellaria serrata
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/48241552

Doyles River Overlook

Monarda clinopodia
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/84240607
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/53969052
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/173510222 (one mile away from first site if necessary)

Scutellaria serrata
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/49972358
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/25643451 (two miles away from first site if necessary)

Frazier Discovery Trailhead

Monarda clinopodia
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/51961658
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/171969482

Ivy Creek Overlook

Chaiturus marrubiastrum
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/31109540 possible vegetative

Hightop Summit Trailhead

Monarda clinopodia
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/173499537
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/88083014
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/90170513

Bootens Gap

Monarda clinopodia
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/172593379
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/125704027

Hazeltop Ridge Overlook

Monarda clinopodia
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/85552098 no uncertainty recorded
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/173921189

Harry F. Byrd, Sr. Visitor Center

Pycnanthemum (check cultivation status of some unlikely occurrences)

Lycopus
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/180561589

Hawksbill Gap

Monarda clinopodia
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/150365477

Old Rag Fire Road

Chaiturus marrubiastrum
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/59732186
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/85542853

Monarda clinopodia
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/125964933
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/85543833
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/171031854

Monarda didyma

• Two well-documented locations. Check along stream margins. May be budding/flowering.
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/346287
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/174953799
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/160492457
  https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/175804887

Beahms Gap Overlook

Chaiturus marrubiastrum
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/181307699 possible vegetative

Elkwallow Picnic Area

Scutellaria saxatilis
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/57339192
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/83039122

38.775230, -78.211046 "Saxatilis Ridge"

Scutellaria saxatilis
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/105629762

Smoke Hole

Monarda brevis and Blephilia ciliata throughout

Smoke Hole roadside hills 1 ( 38.855281, -79.280888 )

• Park at the turnoff and search hills

Smoke Hole roadside hills 2 ( 38.867196, -79.271652 )

• Park at the turnoff and search hills

Smoke Hole roadside hills 3 ( 38.888515, -79.250489 )

• Park at the turnoff and search hills

Big Bend Campground

• Go up hill

Redman Run Trailhead

• Hike on the eastern trail

Cranberry Glades Botanical Area

Meehania cordata

Cranberry Glades Boardwalk

Cow Pasture Trail to Cranberry Glades Observation Tower

Notes after the Trip

• All species on the checklist were observed except Agastache nepetoides, Callicarpa dichotoma, Monarda brevis, and Pycnanthemum torreyi. Another time...
• 105 observations from 31 species of Lamiaceae

I've often been curious about how many photos I've uploaded and how many photos I take per observation. There is no way to do that through the website, so I used python, iNat API, JSON, and a dozens of small tips from people on stackoverflow to make that happen. The python script works well for any user with less than 10,000 observations. Any user with over that number is limited to stats for just the most recent 10,000 observations. It's not efficient code, but if you want to look anyone's photography habits, try out this code:

https://github.com/AlexanderAbair/iNaturalist_user_photo_stat_generator/blob/main/iNaturalist_user_photo_count.py

I recently ran out of IDs to make on curatorial projects that I've been working on. I'd gone through all 12k observations in my Florida Mint Monitoring Project, and I figured I'd seen all of the Florida mint observations available on iNat.

But then I was thinking about all the mint observations that were stuck in "Dicot" ID limbo. Those observations tend to be stuck at a high level ID for a long time (sometimes even years). After reading this post by @tiwane et al. in the iNat forum, I learned about a whole bunch of useful url string tools. The following url allowed me to search for Florida observations that had at least one ID as something in Lamiaceae but had consensus IDs that were anything but Lamiaceae:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?ident_taxon_id=48623&place_id=21&without_taxon_id=48623

The "ident_taxon_id=" and "without_taxon_id=" strings opened up a big set of great mint observations that were just waiting to be nudged towards the correct ID. I'm writing this post in case you're in a similar boat with your organisms and are looking for a way to find those hidden observations. Check out the rest of the useful url strings here.