Biology | Summer Flowering Plants
B364 | 4134 | Gastony
Course Format: One 50-minute lecture and one 3-hour lab (MTWR). Labs on
Monday and Wednesday will usually involve fieldwork.
Prerequisites: One introductory biology course.
Course Description: Provides a broad, practical knowledge of the diversity
of summer flowering plants, with labs emphasizing training in plant
identification. Lectures discuss the morphological/taxonomic
characteristics of the approximately 40 most commonly encountered and/or
economically important families of flowering plants in this part of the
country, stressing features useful in recognizing these families. In labs
students analyze flower structures and apply resulting data to dichotomous
keys used to identify flowering plants to species. Specimens analyzed are
preserved as dried herbarium (museum) reference material to facilitate
species identification throughout the course and beyond. Course is
particularly practical for students of ecology and the environment wanting
to know what plant species occupy a given region, for school science
teachers engaged in interpreting and teaching the local flora, and for
those who are simply interested in learning the kinds of wild plant species
encountered in daily life for life-enriching or other purposes. Course
emphasizes wild flowering plants, but the techniques learned apply equally
to identifying cultivated plants. Further information on the Web at:
Required text: "Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and
Adjacent Canada", second edition, by Henry V. Gleason and Arthur Cronquist.
Weekly Assignments: Make a full set of properly identified and labeled
dried herbarium specimens. Learn the progressively cumulative
characteristics of the plant families discussed and illustrated in lectures.
Exams/Papers: Three major lecture exams spaced at thirds through the course
and covering lecture notes and assigned readings. Three major lab exams
that are keying (identification) exams, usually on the same days as the
lecture exams. A cumulative weekly recognition/identification quiz
covering the species encountered in the labs each week.