Hit 100 species in my county and it messed with my head

Last Sunday I ticked off my 100th native plant species in a 10 mile radius of my house, took me just under 14 months of weekend walks. I thought I knew this area pretty well, but the last 20 species were all things I'd walked past for years without seeing. Has anyone else had that weird feeling where hitting a number makes you realize how little you actually notice?

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harperb461mo ago

The part where you said "the last 20 species were all things I'd walked past for years without seeing" is spot on, but I gotta push back on the idea that hitting a number is what messed with your head. It's not the 100 that does it, it's that your brain literally filters out stuff it thinks is normal. You saw those plants the whole time, your eyes just said "nothing new here" and moved on. The count just made you realize your brain was lying to you about how much you pay attention. Once you start looking for the small stuff like leaf shapes and stem colors, you'll see that even the walk to your mailbox has like 15 species you've stepped on a hundred times. So don't blame the number, blame your lazy pattern recognition. That's the real trip.

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