Labeling Resumes

Last week the owner of Lark Labels (another Karl) met up with Curator of Plants, Maria, to deliver the latest box of 232 labels in the new style.  These are single stakes with scientific name, a common name, a QR code, and the image of a chickadee on a branch.  

The QR code takes one to a web page that references the Valle de Oro Backyard Refuge Program.  That makes lookup for me particularly easy in the field if there's any question about a particular plant's identity.

So the day before yesterday I moved the heavy box with all the labels wrapped in gangs of 5 from the Education Building out to the Herbarium.  Jeffery, the HDRG gardener, helped me find cabinet space.  Curiously, the labels were packaged alphabetically by common name.  

Then yesterday I gathered up my kit and began the task of getting labels in the ground.  Because of the way they were packaged, it was necessary to open up each packet of 5 to see what was in each group.  Then I would sort them into groups based on known location:  desert areas, front gardens, Cottonwood Gallery, etc.  A good fraction of them went into a pile with "no immediately known location."

As I worked up batches of 5 or so, I'd head out into the garden to track down the precise locations.  To my pleasant surprise, the single stakes were much easier to get in the ground than the previous two-pronged "staples."  Because the new label format is currently so sparse in the Garden, I made an effort to choose locations that were in high traffic areas.  Maria and Matt (Northside Assistant Director) will have to come up with some general signage to indicate what the new QR codes represent.  

There were some frustrating surprises.  What I thought was a deodar cedar near the Rosalee Doolittle area, probably is a Cedrus atlantica.  I'll have to ask about that one.  Also, I was unable to locate a scarlet claret cup, Echinocereus coccinius.  Everything I found was an E. triglochidianus.  Also, by relying on Backyard Refuge names, we've ended up with some taxonomic oddities.  Few will notice except the occasional professional passing through.  

At any rate, I was able to get 20 labels in the ground.  At each location, I took a photo of the label and its corresponding plant, perhaps a closeup of bark and leaves, and a general location shot.  I'll spend some time this weekend extracting the EXIF location data from the images and updating my label inventory spreadsheet.  

It was definitely a good day to get outside and avoid the news.  Tariffs, lawsuits, federal retribution, Jimmy Kimmel aftershocks, and hurricanes in the Atlantic have all combined to make the larger world a scarier place.