GOALS: Taxonomy of Flowering Plants Biology 344

The goals of the course are twofold. First, to teach the student how to identify flowering plants using a professional, dichotomous key. Second, to enable the student to recognize common families of spring-flowering plants. In order to accomplish these goals, the student must have an understanding of the life cycle of flowering plants and be a keen observer of their morphology. A further required skill is the ability to dissect small flowers utilizing the dissecting scope and appropriate tools.

The course is basically organismal with insight into the evolution and classification of flowering plants.

Evaluation is by means of (1.) graded exercises in the lecture, as many as twenty different projects, some of them in the form of homework (2.) a final lab exam requiring the student key unknown plant species (3.) a final lab exam in the recognition to family level of about twenty five unknown plants.

Instruction is in the form of lectures, slide presentations, tutorials practicing morphology and family recognition, and hands-on dissection and keying of plants. A field trip is scheduled late in the semester which provides a trial-run in the identifying the plant families. Two texts are used in the course. For the purpose of keying the species, The Vascular Flora of the Carolinas by Radford, Bell and Ahles is used. For morphological terms and a description of families, Wandy Zomlefer's Flowering Plant Families is utilized.