|
Title: Spring Wildflower Identification and Ecology
Scheduling Details: March 19, 24, 26, 31 + April 2nd, 28, 30 + May 5, 7, 12. 7PM –9 PM ET
Tuition: $450. This seminar is 10 classes long.
Description: Follow the changing season each month this spring as we look closely at spring wildflowers, probably our most exquisite and fleeting flowers. Suitable for both beginners and intermediate learners of wildflower identification and ecology. This class will cover the process of field identification, including understanding the terminology specific to wildflowers necessary to understand guides. We will examine plants during their different life stages, plant family relationships, and their habitat preferences. The class will include practice in identification in small groups and live plant examination. In the class we will compare the classic Newcomb’s Guide to Wildflowers with the best of current apps focusing on the features required to allow identification to plant species. The class will also explore the relationships between these plants
and pollinators, seed dispersers, herbivores and pathogens to gain an understanding of each flower’s role in the ecosystem. Spring wildflowers have many incredible adaptations to overcome seasonal vagaries from low temperatures to short growing seasons and deserve our admiration. The class will include plants, common and rare, from the Eastern US covering all the main plant families blooming in spring. So we can explore the progression of spring from south to north, you can record (and check for correct identification) your own flower observations in an optional iNaturalist class project.
Dr. Clare Walker (clare...@verizon.net) moved to the US twenty years ago from the UK and had to teach herself how to start identifying the 1000s of new plants that are native to the Mid Atlantic (while also raising a family) so focused on finding the most effective ways to distinguish plant species. She has worked for the Maryland Park Service, as an educator for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Irvine Nature Center. As an instructor on the Natural History Field Studies Certificate Program, Clare teaches plant identification for the Audubon Naturalist Society (now Nature Forward) and for the Maryland Natural History Society. She gives talks about plants and their roles in the ecosystem for the US Botanical Gardens and Virginia Native Plant Society among others. Clare is passionate about sharing with all audiences the connections between plants, animals and people, and helps to propagate and install native plants at the USGS Bee Monitoring and Inventory Lab.
|
