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Our ace botanists are here to help you identify wild New England plants and to answer questions about their ecology and conservation. When posting a question, please provide the location, habitat (e.g. river, mountain, woodland), and photographs of the plant.
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Recently answered questions
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- Question
- Hi Botanists (Arthur?)! I'm trying to get a better sense of the difference between V. corymbosum and fuscatum. I'm seeing conflicting information regarding the presence of leaf hairs (nerves only versus throughout) and the color of hairs (FNA mentions brown-gray to brown hairs but most plants I've seen and confirmed with floral/fruit characteristics display white to gray hairs). Does hair color change with drying? What characteristics are most helpful when flowers/fruits are not present? Thanks
- Answer
- Dear Dan, good morning. There has been some recent taxonomic work that suggests some of the characters that were used by Uttal (1987) are more regional and do not work throughout the range of Vaccinium fuscatum (and certainly not in New England). I relied heavily on that work and it simply doesn't fit (perfectly) for northeastern material. A new paper has come out (2025) that recognizes only two species: a diploid (V. fuscatum) and a tetraploid (V. corymbosum). While I have reservations about how they treat the diploid portion of this complex, that research explains some of the reasons why we are seeing different character states in the northeast. While the authors try to make the claim that pubescence (amounnt, color) are virtually meaningless in discriminating species, there are trends that suggest your plant is most likely V. fuscatum. If you want to email me (ahaines@nativeplanttrust.org) I'll send you an updated identificaiton key that will assist with your work. I hope you are well. (Friday, 13 March 2026)
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- Question
- Help identifying this plant in our yard. Shady location, NW Connecticut.
- Answer
- Dear Don, good morning. Please forgive the long delay in responding, but it has taken a long time to determine which species you photographed. The plant is likely Campanula poscharskyana (Serbian Bellflower). This species has not been documented as "wild" in New England before. If you feel this plant is naturalized (i.e., growing outside of cultivation), I would appreciate communicating with you by email about this and possibly including it in the flora. I can be reached at ahaines@nativeplanttrust.org, thank you in advance for your help. (Monday, 24 November 2025)
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- Question
- Is this tree located in Benson, VT green ash (F. pennsylvanica)?
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- Dear mmchugh, good morning. The plant certainly looks like Fraxinus pensylvanica. The pubescence of the branchlets and leaves are good identifying characters, as are the lateral leaf scars that are not strongly concave on the distal (i.e., upper) margin. Fraxinus nigra would often have another pair of leaflets (or more) and would show sessile (i.e., unstalked) leaflets. Best wishes. (Tuesday, 28 October 2025)
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