The Challenge
As part of our 50th Anniversary festivities, the Marin CNPS Board presents you with the following Challenge: find and photo-document 50 native plants in Marin’s glorious wildlands and be eligible for a drawing at our August 24th Celebration! Prizes may include plant-oriented books, restaurant gift certificates, and more!
The goals of the Challenge are to highlight the beauty and diversity of Marin’s native flora and to focus attention on the habitats where these especially interesting plants thrive. We hope many will enjoy observing these plants in places both familiar and new.
How to Take Part in the Challenge
The Challenge will run from March 1 through July 31, 2024, and only plants documented within this period and within Marin County will qualify. Choose your 50 native plants from this List of 75 species compiled by our Committee. The List includes habitat information and suggested trails to help you find the plant.
Participants will document their finds in an iNaturalist Project entitled Marin CNPS 50th Anniversary Native Plant Challenge. When you find a plant that is on the List, click on the camera icon on the iNaturalist app to take a photo. Follow the prompts to upload it into the Project.
Committee members are not eligible for the drawing, but will be taking part for fun, monitoring participants’ efforts, and cheering them on!
Need Help? Never fear! Our new field trips team is planning hikes geared to the target plants and an iNaturalist orientation to help you get started.
You can also use this PlantID.net illustrated guide to familiarize yourself with the Challenge plants before you hit the trail.
Additional useful sources to find and identify plants include
- Marin Flora
- CalFlora website,
- the newly published Plants of Mount Tamalpais by Robert Steers, and
- plant lists for many trails that are available on the Marin CNPS website.
Getting Started with iNaturalist
- Go to the App Store or Google Play to download the iNaturalist app onto your smartphone.
- Once you have the app, click on “Sign Up” to open an account and follow the prompts.
- Go to the Projects Tab at the bottom of the screen and start typing the name of our project (Marin CNPS 50th Anniversary Native Plant Challenge) into the search bar. Click on “Join this Project;” the project will then appear in the Projects Tab on your screen whenever you open iNaturalist.
- You can view video tutorials on using iNaturalist.
How to Save an Illustrated PlantID.net Guide on Your Phone to Use Later Without Internet
- On your phone, open a link to thePlantID.net illustrated guide
- Choose “Reports” from the drop down menu below “View
- Scroll down and select “Start Report”. This will create a PDF.
- Tap the download icon (box with an arrow)
- Select “Options”
- Under Options check “Send as PDF” and “Done”
- Scroll down the list to choose “Save to files”
- Save
- To view the guide, go to the “Files” app on your phone
- Tap on the file name (it might be in a Downloads folder)
