Citizen-Scientists Document Illinois Plants




WGLT-FM: Assorted stories from WGLT-FM : NPR show

Summary: Walking along Shady Hollow Trail at Comlara Park, Sherrie Snyder spots a small flowering plant in the underbrush that contains a series of delicate deep purple blossoms. She stoops to snap a photograph of it on her cell phone. "I'm going take a picture of this little guy, the dwarf larkspur," she says. It's all part of a citizen-science project called Flora of Comlara Park. She and other volunteers—you might call them plant Sherlocks—observe and photograph the current plant life so that