Tip #2 Use Mnemonics
I don’t know one scientist who has gotten by without using Mnemonics at some point. Mnemonics can help us learn and remember, whether they are common ones that are passed around or you make up your own. What are some you remember?
Here is one I find useful: “Jefferies are gentle and Ponderosas are prickley”.
I have spent quite a lot of time in the Sierra Nevada mountains and differentiating the various conifer trees can be tricky. Take the case of the Jeffery and Ponderosa Pines (Pinus jefferyi & P. ponderosa); these trees are closely related and difficult to tell apart at first glance.
Both of these trees are tall with long needles in bundles. Jeffery Pines have more glaucous needles (meaning having a grey-green appearance) than Ponderosas, but this is difficult to inspect sometimes as on the older trees, the lowest branches can be far overhead and impossible to reach. Jeffery Pines also have somewhat smaller bark scales than Ponderosas, but again this is a distinction that is only useful when you have two positively ID’d trees already.
The easiest thing is to find the pine cone and when you pick it up if you are pricked sharply, then it is a Ponderosa. Jeffery Pines have the needles at the end of the scales pointing downward, so you can grab a pinecone with a tight grip and not scream in pain.
But I’ll tell you my favorite thing about the Jeffery Pine: in between the bark scales on the trunk (or if you chip a piece off) there is a scent that is like pineapple-butterscotch. This is the reason the Lake Tahoe basin has a sweet butterscotch scent on warm days when the wind blows.
And here’s a cool fact: The purity of the n-heptane distilled from Jeffery Pine resin led to n-heptane being selected as the zero point on the octane rating system of petrol.
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