Recent Changes

This page last modified on 07 March, 2010 ======== Return to S.D.Wildflowers overview page

7 Mar, 2010

• Verbascum thapsus added to Scrophulariaceae family.

3 Mar, 2010

• Rubus ursinus added to Rosaceae family.

20 Feb, 2010

• Heteromeles arbutifolia added to Rosaceae family.

19 Feb, 2010

• Thysanocarpus curvipes added to Brassicaceae family.

6 Feb, 2010

• Epilobium brachycarpum added to Onagraceae family.

16 Jan, 2010

• Monoptilon bellioides added to Asteraceae Radiate family.

9 Jan, 2010

• Aliciella micromeria added to Polemoniaceae family.

3 Jan, 2010

• Nicotiana attenuata added to Solanaceae family.

29 Dec, 2009

• Atriplex pacifica added to Amaranthaceae family.

20 Nov, 2009

• Thalictrum fendleri var polycarpum added to Ranunculaceae family.

18 Nov, 2009

• Hibiscus denudatus added to Malvaceae family.
• Chorizanthe polygonoides var. longispina added to Polygonaceae family.

30 July, 2009

• Pholistoma membranaceum added to Hydrophyllaceae family.

10 July, 2009

• Cakile maritima added to Brassicaceae family.

8 July, 2009

• Sagina decumbens ssp. occidentalis added to Caryophyllaceae family.

27 June, 2009

• Malacothamnus aboriginum added to Malvaceae family.

20 June, 2009

• Ceanothus leucodermis added to Rhamnaceae family.
• Cercidium floridum in FabaceaeRadial subfamily is now called Parkinsonia florida.

18 June, 2009

• Photo in the Salicaceae family previously labelled as Salix gooddingii has now been identified as Salix lasiolepis based on updated ID analysis, and photos for both Pistillate and Staminate flowers have been added.

19 May, 2009

• Main goal of my activities has shifted to improving the XID TestKey to Identify Wildflowers found growing in the wild areas of San Diego County.  Intended users include anyone who has trouble quickly learning the botanic Family of an unfamiliar plant.  The photographs of common San Diego Wildflowers shown on this website, that I've collected since 2000, are an essential part of the TestKey search method.
• The San Diego County Plant Atlas Project at SDNHM gives public access to an extensive database of wild plant observations throughout the county.  The simplest result is a table of those observations in spreadsheet format showing the Family, Genus, and Species names.  The right-most item in each line is a Google Image search key for that plant.  I've noticed for some time that if the species is in my website collection, a link to my initial close-up photo is usually among the first 10 Google hits.  But the linked photo is often not to the main Family page which should have highest priority.  Often the Google link is to one of my special-topic groupings that uses the same photographs, but doesn't make the user aware of the Family page.
• As a result of the two issues summarized above, and nudged by an LA Times article on Google improvements in its search tools, I've now launched an effort to steer more Google users to be aware of my XID TestKey activities.  A hope would be to get more users interested in the TestKey.  Google Image search links to some of my species will likely be broken while the website revision is in progress.

19 April, 2009

• Photos in the Ephedraceae family previously labelled as Ephedra viridis have now been identified as Ephedra californica based on further ID analysis and one additional photograph.  Also newer photos identified as Ephedra aspera have been added to this family.  Details on the identification may be found in latest version of our Test Database which is available for downloading under Multiple-Entry Keys.
• Photos of Juniperus californica in the Cupressaceae family have been added, with ID details also given in the Test Database.
• Species from the Photo-Key website for the Loasaceae, Polygonaceae, Portulacaceae, Ranunculaceae, Rosaceae, and Violaceae families have been added to the Test Database which now has 315 species keyed.

22 March, 2009

• Test Database described under Multiple-Entry Keys (and available for downloading) now has 300 species keyed, with considerable attention given to the Notable Recognition Clues (Differentiating Attributes).

10 February, 2009

• Ericameria paniculata added to AsteraceaeDiscoid subfamily.

8 February, 2009

• Ericameria parishii added to AsteraceaeDiscoid subfamily.

4 February, 2009

• Ericameria brachylepis was previously mis-identified as Chrysosthamnus paniculatus in the AsteraceaeDiscoid subfamily.  I thank Tom Chester for pointing this out.

5 July, 2008

• Galium angustifolium ssp. angustifolium photos updated in Rubiaceae family, including addition of Pistillate flowers.
• Test Database described under Multiple-Entry Keys (and available for downloading) is now implemented also in Lucid and executable online. 

18 May, 2008

• The paper Taxonomic Databases for Naive Users, reachable via the link The Missing-Data Problem that plagues many Multiple-Entry keys in the page on Multiple-Entry Keys has been augmented to incorporate references to the DELTA multiple-entry key environment.

23 April, 2008

• I've added new/updated photographs in the Polemoniaceae family of the photo-key for the following species: Collomia grandiflora, Eriastrum filifolium, Eriastrum sapphirinum, Langloisia setosissima, Leptosiphon floribundus, Leptosiphon parviflorus, and Navarretia hamata.
• In the XID Test Database, the same species have been added along with Allophyllum gilioides.

6 April, 2008

• In the XID Test Database most of the First Stage Menus (except those involving lengths) are now illustrated with either drawings or photographs.  Accordingly, the file ProgramLevelFiles.zip is updated with a new version of the file XID-SDfamilies.xid, and the file MenuImages.zip is completely replaced. See Multiple-Entry Keys  for links to these files.

21 March, 2008

• Illustration figures added to paper on Search Strategy for Flora-ID database on San Diego Wildflowers. See Multiple-Entry Keys  for links