I want to be a naturalist when I grow up!
In the meantime, I peruse roadsides in rural Anson County, NC, looking for native wildflowers. I add my finds to the project, ‘North Carolina Piedmont Roadside Native Plants’., with continual surprise at how many turn out to be rare plants. The rare lovelies are automatically collected in the project ‘Rare Vascular Plants of North Carolina’ .
I have a goal of recording wildflowers on every road in my county. I have been doing that at a rate of about 100 roads each year for just over 3 years.
UPDATE: Y’all, I have recorded wildflowers on 360 Anson County roads. Going into the new year, I still need to visit 114 roads. Another year to a year and a half should do it! Then I’m thinking I will return to every road and collect at least one specimen to send to herbariums. I’ve already started doing that, thanks to @camcc ‘s long distance tutoring on the pressing process. My profile pic is a teeny Sisyrinchium rosulatum from a mowed lawn.