Sunday, April 17, 2011

This is an appropriately named mustard; it must have been at least 3 feet tall on a slender stalk. We only noticed this one. So, as I was reading the Wikipedia entry about tower mustard, and considering it's native to Europe, Asia, North Africa, and apparently to California and elsewhere, a big question comes to mind: How do people determine if any plant is native or introduced?

2 comments:

Out on the prairie said...

I would think of records of finds would point a finger in the native ID. It is amazing how long we have catergorized them. I was in a herborium 8 years back and looked over plant mounts by George Washington Carver and Thomas Jefferson.

Katie (Nature ID) said...

Thanks, Steve. I hadn't thought about records from herbaria. I'm impressed you got to see plant mounts by Washington and Jefferson. They were true Renaissance men.