tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8508998463866407663.post3963549253843840509..comments2024-01-06T23:47:42.393-08:00Comments on Theobrominated: IdentificationPhil Garnock-Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05010415287478039865noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8508998463866407663.post-48419400452132248452012-05-19T23:15:56.118-07:002012-05-19T23:15:56.118-07:00Thanks Mike & Fran, I think most people would ...Thanks Mike & Fran, I think most people would agree with you, but for me I'd say most finds were in the herbarium in the course of revising a group. Ranunculus altus was a case in point. Maybe I'll tell that story here soon, because it's a good example of collaboration between a field botanist and a herbarium taxonomist. Tony Druce's discoveries would nearly all have started in the field, but were always followed up in the garden and the herbarium. <br />As for the dry herbarium specimens, I think it's 6 of one and half a dozen of t'other. For example, sometimes drying makes a character more obvious, like the blackening of Veronica leaves that's caused by aucubin esters. And in the herbarium it's easier to use a microscope.Phil Garnock-Joneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05010415287478039865noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8508998463866407663.post-70881110846868521462012-05-19T16:14:12.877-07:002012-05-19T16:14:12.877-07:00Very interesting and I mostly wholeheartedly agree...Very interesting and I mostly wholeheartedly agree - however, "just knows em" can work very well for field botanists and may be the only way that a field survey would be completed within the tight timeframes allowed. BUT field botanists have to be aware of when they do correctly "just know em" or instead are mentally blanking those species that they don't know<br /><br />Also, the "just know em" brigade work with live individuals and sometimes see variation that would not be easily seen in dry herbarium specimens, so opening the way for further taxonomic investigation. My feeling is that in NZ this is the way that most new species are first detected rather than from taxonomic investigations in herbarium???Mike and Franhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02134811760719084355noreply@blogger.com