{"id":6824,"date":"2018-02-20T23:26:28","date_gmt":"2018-02-20T23:26:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/indiananativeplants.org\/?page_id=6824"},"modified":"2024-03-02T02:07:23","modified_gmt":"2024-03-02T02:07:23","slug":"florathon","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/indiananativeplants.org\/inps-sponsored-events\/florathon\/","title":{"rendered":"Florathon Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><span style=\"color: #78aa66;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-6899\" src=\"http:\/\/indiananativeplants.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Hepatica.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"161\" height=\"155\" \/><\/span><\/h1>\n<h6>Photo credit: Bloodroot, <em>Sanguinaria canadensis<\/em>, by Glenda Ferguson, 2023\u00a0INPS Photo Contest.<\/h6>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2>Florathon 2024<\/h2>\n<p><strong><em>How many native wildflower species will you find in bloom?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Let’s make this year\u2019s Florathon the biggest and best ever! Form your teams now, give yourselves a name, solicit sponsors, and prepare to venture out into Indiana’s lovely natural areas to spot flowers in bloom. The Florathon is a great way to enjoy spring wildflowers and support a worthy cause. The event promotes donations to <a href=\"https:\/\/indiananativeplants.org\/education\/lethas-youth-outdoor-fund\/\">Letha’s Youth Outdoors Fund<\/a>, whose aim is to engage children with nature.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a class=\"maxbutton-3 maxbutton maxbutton-all-purpose\" href=\"https:\/\/fs27.formsite.com\/JinkhW\/bs0ugzypt9\/index\"><span class='mb-text'>Sponsor Your Team with a Donation<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2>What\u2019s a Florathon?<\/h2>\n<p>Teams of two to six people, traveling together, visit natural areas in Indiana during a 24-hour period of their choosing. This year’s dates are from <strong>Saturday, April 13, through Friday, May 31, 2024<\/strong>. The object is to identify as many native wildflower species in flower as they can.<\/p>\n<p>Team members enlist sponsors (family, friends, office mates, church groups, carpool, businesses, whatever) who honor their efforts by making a donation to the Indiana Native Plant Society. This year\u2019s Florathon proceeds are earmarked for Letha’s Youth Outdoors Fund.<\/p>\n<p>Sponsors who donate $35 or more are eligible for a one-year complimentary INPS membership (pertains to first-time members only).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/SrWTPTUbgNg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Video of Bloomin’ Stellarias’ winning 2019 effort<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Why Should I Participate?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>To raise money in support of the INPS mission.<\/li>\n<li>To learn (or improve or teach others) identification of native wildflowers.<\/li>\n<li>To enjoy being outdoors in a natural area in the spring.<\/li>\n<li>To meet new people, make new friends, and enjoy seeing old friends.<\/li>\n<li>To have fun!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How Do I Participate?<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>Fill out the <a href=\"https:\/\/indiananativeplants.org\/inps-sponsored-events\/florathon\/team-roster-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"attachment noopener wp-att-14210\">Team Roster<\/a> sheet with contact information to facilitate contacting your team members.<\/li>\n<li>Enlist the support of sponsors using the <a href=\"https:\/\/indiananativeplants.org\/inps-sponsored-events\/florathon\/sponsor-pledge-form-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"attachment noopener wp-att-14208\">Sponsor Pledge Form<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Keep track of their commitments and payments on the <a href=\"https:\/\/indiananativeplants.org\/inps-sponsored-events\/florathon\/sponsor-summary-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"attachment noopener wp-att-13294\">Sponsor Summary<\/a> sheet.<\/li>\n<li>Pick your natural areas to survey and choose the time you will visit. Visit as many as you want within the 24-hour plant-hunting period.<\/li>\n<li>On site, record all the native herbaceous species in flower (forbs) using the downloadable Species Sightings forms provided here. You can use the form with <a href=\"https:\/\/indiananativeplants.org\/inps-sponsored-events\/florathon\/florathon-species-sightings_2024common\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"attachment noopener wp-att-14206\">Common Names<\/a> or the one with <a href=\"https:\/\/indiananativeplants.org\/inps-sponsored-events\/florathon\/florathonspeciessightings_2024latin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"attachment noopener wp-att-14207\">Latin Names<\/a>, your choice. Or, you can create your own recording method using our <a href=\"https:\/\/indiananativeplants.org\/inps-sponsored-events\/florathon\/florathon-species-spreadsheet_2024\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14211\">Excel Spreadsheet<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Send in the completed Team Roster, Sponsor Summary, and Species Sightings forms and sponsor checks to Florathon Chair Barbara Homoya, 529 Hornaday Road, Brownsburg, IN 46112. The deadline is June 15, 2024.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Will There Be Prizes?<\/h2>\n<p>Yes, team awards will be announced at the INPS Annual Meeting. They will include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Most native species recorded<\/li>\n<li>Most new members recruited through donations<\/li>\n<li>Most money raised<\/li>\n<li>Most counties visited<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Competition Rules<\/h2>\n<p>The aim of the Florathon is for you to enjoy the outdoors, participate in citizen science, and have fun with your team while raising funds for a good cause. Just a few rules need to be observed:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Team should consist of two to six persons. No need to register your team in advance.<\/li>\n<li>Team must travel and walk together as a group to find the native plants.<\/li>\n<li>Teams may record only the native species viewed within their chosen 24-hour survey period between April 13 and May 31, 2024. The county in which the species is observed should be recorded as well.<\/li>\n<li>Only native wildflowers in bloom (forbs) may be recorded. No trees, shrubs, grasses, sedges, rushes, or ferns are to be included.<\/li>\n<li>Teams will make a good faith effort to identify plants correctly.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Teams will record only plants actually seen. The honor system applies.<\/li>\n<li>Be certain to acquire permission when visiting private property. On public land familiarize yourself with the property regulations. In most cases you are required to stay on marked trails.<\/li>\n<li>Avoid visiting sites with fragile ecosystems and trampling tender vegetation.<\/li>\n<li>Do not seek out threatened and endangered species, but if discovered do not publish location information, especially on social media sites.\u00a0\u00a0<strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Will the Collected Data Be Used?<\/h2>\n<p>Records of which species bloom where and when are useful for tracking the health of our native plants and their response to climate patterns. We will share our citizen-scientist data with biologists and ecologists who can analyze our findings and plug them into their studies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo credit: Bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis, by Glenda Ferguson, 2023\u00a0INPS Photo Contest. Florathon 2024 How many native wildflower species will<a class=\"excerpt-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/indiananativeplants.org\/inps-sponsored-events\/florathon\/\" title=\"ReadFlorathon Competition\">… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14156,"parent":668,"menu_order":250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6824","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiananativeplants.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiananativeplants.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiananativeplants.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiananativeplants.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiananativeplants.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6824"}],"version-history":[{"count":59,"href":"https:\/\/indiananativeplants.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14221,"href":"https:\/\/indiananativeplants.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6824\/revisions\/14221"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiananativeplants.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiananativeplants.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiananativeplants.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}