Goals: Biology 534-Advanced Taxonomy of Flowering Plants

Dr. Ted Bradley

The goal of the course is to expose the student to a wide sample of genera of vascular plants in Northern Virginia. The course is taught in the autumn to allow the students to see families and genera not available in the spring when the beginning course in taxonomy (Biology 344) is taught. Also, the specimens are in usually in a more mature stage (fruiting condition) which forces the student to learn terms not used much during the spring course. An important second goal is demonstrating to the students various habitats and how to survey the environment for the variety of plants that they contain. And finally, the course requires that the student learn how to produce professionally acceptable documentation of a plant specimens.

The student must be able to traverse difficult terrain (marsh and mountain) and provide their own transportation to field sites on the weekend. Ability to make correct decisions in the identification of plants and to recognize variation in a plant species is necessary for the successful completion of the course.

The course is primarily a field course in botany. The use of dichotomous keys provides learning to make decisions by the process of selective elimination of potential choices.

Evaluation of student success will be determined by quality of prepared specimens and the completeness of documentation, the number of vascular plant genera identified and an oral exam to evaluate the student's ability to recognize the families, genera and species which are in her or his collection.

Lectures will be given on those families with elaborate terminology, such as the Asteraceae, Cyperaceae and Poaceae. Field trips of one day duration on the weekend will be used to expose the students to field experience. Identification of the specimens will be done in the lab using the dissecting scope and a professional key to vascular plants.