Oy! What about a special hello for the forum's drama queen, aka Her Royal Majesty, mother of insane emperors and relative of the great Augustus.

Welcome to the forum!

I've just caught up with this post and I'm embarrassed to see I made Cali's list. My specialisms are financial mathematics and angry polemics. I can price an option or value a company but as far as science is concerned, I am an enthusiastic amateur. I have learned much from the many highly qualified people on this forum, including those on and some not on Cali's list. So don't be embarrassed. You at least are formally studying the subject you are interested in.

As already mentioned, Cali himself is a magisterial destroyer of creationist canards and I am always in awe of the vast tsunamis of scientific facts and citations he unleashes on his hapless victims. I have learned more from his posts than any other single scientific source.

Hello new person.

And yeah, love to see the pics from Florida.

Welcome aboard

Deremensis wrote:and to The_Piper: I will try to post some of my nature photography at some point later! I'm taking a field bio class right now, so I'll have a lot of photos of native Florida plants and birds.

Woohoo! Anything will be interesting. I saw you mentioned ticks. We've even had a couple of people sharing micrographs of bacteria.

The_Piper wrote:

Deremensis wrote:and to The_Piper: I will try to post some of my nature photography at some point later! I'm taking a field bio class right now, so I'll have a lot of photos of native Florida plants and birds.

Woohoo! Anything will be interesting. I saw you mentioned ticks. We've even had a couple of people sharing micrographs of bacteria.

Ah, that was my bad. Common beggars ticks are a weed, not an actual tick
They're little white flowers with a yellow center that get their name from the fact that just about anything that lightly brushes up against them will get their seed stuck on them and spread it elsewhere. Here in Florida you'll find the damn things crowding out everything but the crabgrass in a yard. This is similar to what they look like (I'm not sure I've seen leaves like this on most of the ones I see down here, but the flower looks the same, and it is definitely of the Bidens genus):

Oh, I never heard of those. Plants are interesting too.

Ah, we have a plant called "Beggar Ticks" here in the UK as well. Bidens frondosa, Family Asteraceae (formerly Compositae), i.e., related to Daisies, Dandelions, Thistles and Goldenrods. Belongs to a Genus containing the Bur Marigolds. According to my field guide, it's an introduction from North America that has become naturalised or semi-naturalised in Britain and Germany. Can't recall having seen this plant on my travels, but since it appears to becoming a new board meme here, I'll look out for it.

Closest relatives in the Asteraceae are the Wormwoods (Artemisia), Yarrows and allies (Achillea) and the Butterburs (Petasites), the latter plants recently coming to scientific attention as potential sources of anti-migraine agents.

^^ See what I mean, Deremensis? You can expect to be treated to a rundown like that every time you pull your pants down.

That's what keeps me coming back. Just wait till you get regaled with Cali's encyclopaedic knowledge of the more... err... shall we say flavoursome elements of Linnaean Taxonomy...

Deremensis wrote:

The_Piper wrote:

Deremensis wrote:and to The_Piper: I will try to post some of my nature photography at some point later! I'm taking a field bio class right now, so I'll have a lot of photos of native Florida plants and birds.

Woohoo! Anything will be interesting. I saw you mentioned ticks. We've even had a couple of people sharing micrographs of bacteria.

Ah, that was my bad. Common beggars ticks are a weed, not an actual tick
They're little white flowers with a yellow center that get their name from the fact that just about anything that lightly brushes up against them will get their seed stuck on them and spread it elsewhere. Here in Florida you'll find the damn things crowding out everything but the crabgrass in a yard. This is similar to what they look like (I'm not sure I've seen leaves like this on most of the ones I see down here, but the flower looks the same, and it is definitely of the Bidens genus):

The leaves on that plant don't look like any of the Bidens species in my field guide. Bidens species have narrow, lanceolate, coarsely toothed leaves, whilst your image depicts something with pinnately lobed foliage. Those five petalled flowers don't resemble a composite either, they're far closer in appearance to one of the Geum species in the Rosaceae, such as Herb Bennet, Geum urbanum, which, along with the related Water Avens, Geum rivale, has burr like fruits that cling to clothing. Beggar Ticks produces rectangular, two-pronged fruits that resemble a tick infestation in appearance, hence the name.

From this website, I was able to find some photos of Beggar Ticks, which is a waterside plant growing on stream and riverbanks, but above the high tide line, and never in a situation where the roots can become inundated. It likes damp but not waterlogged soil. The first picture shows the general growth habit - note those leaves, narrow lanceolate and coarsely toothed:



In this photo, it can be seen that some leaves may have a pair of lobes at the base:



Close up of the inflorescence, showing lots of disc florets, but few, if any, ray florets:



For comparison, here's Herb Bennet, Geum urbanum, a plant I encounter frequently in my neighbourhood:



That shot shows flowers, leaves and fruits quite nicely. The name comes from the fact that Herb Bennet is one of the ingredients used to flavour Benedictine Liqueuer.

A quick check of Wikipedia reveals that North America has something like 20 species of Geum to choose from, including at least four that resemble your plant.

hackenslash wrote:^^ See what I mean, Deremensis? You can expect to be treated to a rundown like that every time you pull your pants down.

That's what keeps me coming back. Just wait till you get regaled with Cali's encyclopaedic knowledge of the more... err... shall we say flavoursome elements of Linnaean Taxonomy...

Could not agree more, the guy is a treasure.

hackenslash wrote:^^ See what I mean, Deremensis? You can expect to be treated to a rundown like that every time you pull your pants down.

That's what keeps me coming back. Just wait till you get regaled with Cali's encyclopaedic knowledge of the more... err... shall we say flavoursome elements of Linnaean Taxonomy...

Ah, he'll want the wacky taxonomy thread.

Indeed, though it's missing something in this list:

Ochisme
Dolichisme
Florichisme
Marichisme
Nanichisme
Peggichisme
Polychismep

Should have added Andthenechisme...

Oh, and while I'm in the mood, this is your one stop shop for all taxonomic high jinks past and present, though sadly, it hasn't yet included the fossil plant from the Rhynie Chert, that was named Gingoites nannyoggiae, after one of the Discworld characters.

The world of Lepidoptera alone is replete with fun and games taxonomy wise, such as the fact that several taxa in the Riodinidae (Nemeobiidae in older literature) are anagrams of each other (e.g., the Genera Laxita and Taxila), and Linnaeus started a trend for naming Catocala Noctuid moths with species names referring to brides, marriage, courtship, and in some later variations of the theme, rampant shagging (though I've yet to see any reference to harlots, which would be the case if there existed a Catocala hetaira - isn't a Classical education a wonderful thing?). Find out more here, even though the article doesn't elaborate on any of this!

hackenslash wrote:Indeed, though it's missing something in this list:

Ochisme
Dolichisme
Florichisme
Marichisme
Nanichisme
Peggichisme
Polychismep

Should have added Andthenechisme...

Well we've already had Diptera named Pieza pi, Pieza kake, Pieza rhea and Pieza derisistans. In fact I have the taxonomic paper in which these were described in my collection.

EDIT: Ah, found the paper:

Catalogue Of The Mythicomyiidae Of The World (Insecta: Diptera) by Neil L. Evenhuis, Bishop Museum Bulletin In Entomology, 10: 1-85 (2002)

You can download it from here. The entries for the Pieza species begin on page 55.

You guys are mad!

Edit to add: I mean that in the best of ways, of course.

Oh, meanwhile, several of us are having fun with a creationist who's trying to assert that plate tectonics, and the past existence of Pangaea, is something atheists made up to try and deny the existence of his invisible magic man. Amongst the other typical instances of batshit insanity mixed with duplicity that we all know and love from the creationist camp. Even without tapping theropod on the shoulder, I alighted upon magnetic inclination.

Deremensis, what part of Florida are you in?