vilseskog's Identifications

As in true fashion with nature photography, inspiration for plant searching happens by chance. As I spent my days walking through Rutgers I would look at plants between my classes and attempt to determine whether they were eligible and worthy candidates or not for my first submission to iNaturalist. I was talking to my sister on the phone walking to class discussing how I was on the hunt for a specimen to upload and how I have been learning so much in my class that I am able to distinguish certain characteristics of plants from memory now. Looking around my surroundings, I quickly tried to pick a plant to prove my point, settling on the pretty pink flowers located in the giant stone planters across campus. Walking towards it, I discussed how it was planted here by gardeners, and not naturally occurring. The flowers were growing in a racemic manner with open bilabiate flowers towards the top and closed shoots towards the bottom and leaves with entire margins. Being able to ascertain features of plants that I previously had no knowledge of was satisfying, to say the least!