I'm teaching the new botanist to key- she's not familiar with the Jepson, or the Peterson, or dichotomous keying really. I am sneakily disobeying the "Teach her everything from the begining" edict that Susan the boss handed down, because I lack an advanced degree in phylogeny, lakes of patience, and a Susan the biker/mad botanist to gather plants from whichever family I crave to teach. Poor Christy is learning the main families and their characteristics. I'm not going to cover interrelationships. There will be no discussion of gene roots for tepal formation. I will say "Here are characteristics of the Asteraceae, Apiaceae, Polemoniaceae, Liliaceae, Orchidaceae, Cyperaceae, Juncaceae, Fabaceae, Rosaceae, Ranunculaceae, Polygonaceae, Fagaceae, Pinaceae, Poaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Lamiaceae, and Geraineaceae. Start keying!

As a note from reading the Jepson in times of stress: all genera in the Geraineaceae are named after shorebirds; heron, stork, egret. That's pretty cool, I think.