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Serious question, does anyone else think marked trails and plant ID apps are ruining casual botany?
I was at a meetup in Portland last month and this guy pulls out his phone to ID a trillium before he even crouches down to look at the leaves. Then two other people did the same thing. Nobody touched the plant or argued about whether it was sessile or pedicellate. Whole thing took 10 seconds.
I get that apps help beginners. I really do. But I keep running into people who can name 200 species and have never once gotten their hands dirty keying something out with a real dichotomous key. They don't know what a petiole looks like in person. They just trust the photo match.
Same thing with groomed trails. I walked a county park near me last fall and counted 6 people photographing the same labeled sign instead of the actual moss growing two feet away. The sign said haircap moss. It was actually broom moss. Nobody noticed or cared.
I'm not saying apps are evil. I'm saying the point of this hobby for me is the slow confusing part where you get it wrong for a month and then finally figure out the family. That's the fun. That's the whole thing.
Am I way off here or has anyone else watched this happen at a local meetup?
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