GCE Announcement
Field Program News
How to identify the species you found on the GA coast
If you're wondering what that species is that you saw, the GCE and UGAMI have three resources that can help you.
First, GCE has a species list on our web site (Data Products > Species Lists). Many of the observations have photographs. If you have photographs of something that occurs here but isn't on our list, send them to Steve Pennings and he'll add them to the web site.
Second, you can also find species known from the GCE domain by searching the i-naturalist "place" for the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=191188&subview=map. As of 2025, there are over 20,000 observations of over 3,000 species from the GCE domain. You can use the “filters” tab to narrow the list to a few broad taxonomic categories. You can also make new "observations" using the i-naturalist app on your smartphone and get a suggested identification almost immediately in the field as long as you have a good phone signal. The suggested identifications are right more often than not, and i-naturalist volunteers will often chime in to confirm or correct idenfications over the coming days.
Third, UGAMI has an herbarium with pressed specimens of many coastal GA plants. You can compare your plant with pressed ones to see if they match. Treat the herbarium specimens with care, and don't leave them outside the cabinets overnight. Ask for help from Steve Pennings if you're unsure about what you're doing.
(Contact Steve Pennings for additional information)
submitted Jun 06, 2025
