Samantha Heller

Entrou: 21 de mar. de 2019 Última vez ativo: 28 de mar. de 2024 iNaturalist Monthly Supporter since dezembro 2021

NWA Master Naturalist;
professional chigger finder,
amateur everything else.

✰ Tallgrass prairie / glade appreciator trapped in the degraded thicket-forests of the Ozarks.



✰ Find me on Instagram @ Aux Arc Wildflowers-- I promise I can take better photos than my 'diagnostic shots' here 😉🍀

Aux Arc is the original French for 'Ozark', for the uninitiated. Additional fun fact: the town of Smackover, Arkansas comes from the French 'sumac couvert', as in, covered in sumac plants. There's your cultural lesson for the day. ✨

✰ Occasionally active on eBird 🕊️



Feel free to tag me if you left a comment that I should have responded to but did not-- sometimes notifications get lost when too many hit at once, and sometimes I simply forget to reply to things. It happens; don't hesitate to reach out twice.



My first "spark plant" was Dutchman's Britches (Dicentra cucullaria), mentioned by a beloved high school English teacher of mine-- that was the first time I asked my botanist/birder mother about a plant and didn't think it was lame that she was immediately trying to drag me out to go see them.

Well, I probably did... but I went along with it nonetheless.

Spark plant #2, a few years later, happened to be Violet Woodsorrel (Oxalis violacea), which finally convinced me to start getting to know our local plants by their names instead of just looking at them.

Everything just went downhill from there...


iNaturalist Projects of Interest:
Congeneric Comparisons: a library of photos that compare two difficult species at the same time
Larder Locker: North American Shrike Caches
Ignore the Elephant Seal
Geralds of the World
Herps of Arkansas
Pre-Maverick
"Moss"ouri


Useful iNat links:
Beginner tips & common mistakes
iNat or iNot? What counts as captive/cultivated
Search refinement
Frequently used responses
Expanded comparison tab for identifying observations
Using the Identify feature to add annotations
For the following links, replace my username in the URL with your own:
My observed taxa & dynamic life list
Resolve maverick IDs
View your IDs for others, sorted by species

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