As I have noted elsewhere, my plant identifications are often only to the genus level due to limitations on my knowledge, resources, time, etc.  For any of you who look at a map and see where I live, you’ll see that things like herbaria and skilled plant taxonomists are far from home.

Botany books to meet my 2016 goal of better plant taxonomy.

Graduate school gave me a great basis in plant identification and recognition of major families and genera.  Since grad school I have learned a lot more.  But, species-level taxonomy is still weak, and now that we live adjacent to California, total plant diversity is in a totally different class than what I am used to.  Doing a decent job of aphid natural history and taxonomy will require substantially better botany skill and knowledge than I have gotten by with up until now.  Anyone reading this want to come and teach me?  Stop by and we’ll go out botanizing!