Field Botany (Biology 2355)

FIELD BOTANY (BIOLOGY 2355)--2007

GENERAL INFORMATION

PERSONNEL

Instructor: Lynn Bohs, 228 South Biology, phone: 585-0380, e-mail: [email protected]

Teaching assistant: Stephen Stern, 232 South Biology, phone: 585-0420 (lab), e-mail: [email protected]

TIME AND PLACE

W F, 12:55-5:00 pm. Lectures start at 12:55 pm, and are in 230 James Talmage Building (JTB). Field trips depart either after lecture, or if there is no lecture for the day, field trips depart from behind the Skaggs biology building (between Skaggs and the bookstore).

PURPOSE OF COURSE

The objective is to learn about plant biology by studying the local flora. You will develop skills in using technical botanical floras and the herbarium for identifying plants. Lectures provide the biological context of the habitats visited and plants observed.

Plants of Salt Lake County and Adjacent Areas, Utah, by L. Arnow & M. Windham. 2004.

This book will be your main resource for identifying the plants we see in the field. It is written by Lois Arnow and Michael Windham from the University of Utah’s Garrett Herbarium.

We will be using an advance copy of a new revised edition for this class. Numerous changes have been made to the old edition. The copies are being loaned to us so that we can try the new version and provide feedback to the authors. Unfortunately, you will not be able to keep your copy. The final version will probably be out within the year.

CLASSROOM RESOURCES

We encourage you to use the classroom on your own time for identifying homework plants and the plants in your independent collection. For that purpose you will have ID card access to the classroom Monday through Friday. In addition to your textbooks, several other resources are available in the classroom.

1 Your text on CD

Dr. Bill Gray, formerly of the University of Utah Biology Department has produced a CD version of your text (the first edition). His version includes a unique search function that allows you to identify plants without the tedium of keying them out. We will have one of his CD’s installed in a computer in the classroom for your use. You may also purchase one of your own.

Utah Flora on CD

Your text only covers plants from Salt Lake and Davis Counties. If you want to identify plants from other areas in Utah we also have the Utah Flora on CD on a computer in the classroom. This CD also has a search function to help you with identification.

“Plant Identification Terminology; an Illustrated Glossary” by J.G. Harris and M.W. Harris 1997. Spring Lake Publications. A copy of this useful text will be in the classroom. If you are floundering in an ocean of terminology, this book will help.

Classroom Reference Collection.

In the classroom we have a reference collection—courtesy of previous students in this class. It is organized alphabetically by plant family. Please handle the specimens with care and restore to their original order after use. You may find this collection helpful for checking your homework plants or your independent collections. Not all plants are in the collection, however.

Dissecting scopes

There will be some dissecting scopes available in the classroom for use in keying out plants. You will find these extremely useful for plant identification.

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES

For those of you wanting to explore plant identification further, here are some recommended books.

1. “A Utah Flora” by S.L. Welsh, N.D. Atwood, L.C. Higgins, and S. Goodrich. Brigham Young University Press. 2003, 1993, or 1987 editions; any of them are adequate.

The serious botanists among you will want to purchase this book. It covers ALL the plants in Utah, with keys, descriptions, and a glossary. The U. bookstore has some copies at $90-100. Limited copies will be available for classroom use.

2 2. “Intermountain Flora” by A. Cronquist, A.H. Holmgren, J.L. Holmgren, and J.L. Reveal. New York Botanical Garden. Multi-volume set.

This work-in-progress covers the entire Great Basin region including Utah, Nevada, southern Idaho, and southeastern Oregon. It has keys, species descriptions, and best of all: illustrations of every species! However, the price for the set is over $300.

3. “Utah Wildflowers, a Field Guide to Northern and Central Mountains and Valleys” by R.J. Shaw. Utah State University Press. 1995.

Pluses: photographs of local wildflowers make an approximate identification easier. Minuses: only a portion of plants are covered and it cannot be used for precise identification. Sometimes at the U bookstore.

4. “Weeds of the West” by T.D. Whitson et al. University of Wyoming Press. 1993.

Excellent reference for weedy species, ca. $22.

5. “Sagebrush Country” by R.J. Taylor. Mountain Press Publ. Co. 1992.

Non-technical guide with photographs. Covers the west desert country flowers as well as some mountain flowers. Available at U bookstore or the UMNH bookstore.

6. “The Sagebrush Ocean” by S. Trimble. 1989. University of Nevada Press.

An excellent overview of the natural history of the Great Basin. Beautiful photographs. $10-20 at U bookstore or UMNH Bookstore.

OTHER COURSE MATERIALS

It is essential that you buy a 10X hand lens. These are available at the bookstore (ca. $6). You will need this to examine the often minute features of plants that are used to identify species.

Three sources of higher quality lenses are listed below:

BioQuip www.bioquip.com Phone: (310) 667-8800 Fax: (310) 667-8808 Recommended item: 10X Coddington Magnifier 1128B $24.75 10X Hastings triplet magnifier 1128E $42.40

3 Carolina Biological Supply Co. Phone: (800) 334-5551 email: [email protected] www.carolina.com

Recommended items (Baush & Lomb lenses): 10X Coddington Magnifier 60-2152 $31.55

Wards Biology Supply www.wardsci.com Phone: (800) 962-2660 Fax: (800) 635-8439

Recommended items (Baush & Lomb lenses): 10X Coddington Magnifier 25 V 1620 $29.95 10X Hastings triplet magnifer 25 V 2220 $49.95

A field notebook is necessary for writing down the plants we see, and information about their morphology and habitat. A pocket-sized loose-leaf type is recommended.

FIELD TRIPS

There are 8 scheduled field trips during the Wednesday and Friday “lab” sessions. Wednesday trips will be shorter and usually will follow a lecture. Most Fridays there will be no lecture—just a field trip. All trips will take at least until 5 pm. Sometimes we may be a little late in returning. Transport will be provided (university vans). On bad weather days we will key out plants in the laboratory.

Come prepared with the following:

*sturdy boots or shoes for off-trail walking and snake protection *hand lens, notebook, and pencil *sun hat *sunscreen, lip ice *pocket knife is useful *raingear or shell if it’s threatening *water *insect repellent (essential for west-desert trips) *plastic bags (ziplocks are very handy) for collecting plants (optional) *daypack

These trips come with the usual risks of travel and outdoor activities (sunburn, snake bites, insect bites, poison ivy (rare), dehydration, etc). Because of these risks, the university requires that each student sign a waiver form indicating you understand the situation and will not sue the university if something happens to you.

4 INDEPENDENT FIELD TRIP COLLECTION

For your independent project you will take your own “field trip” to one or more novel localities (that is, ones that we have not visited in class). Here you will collect and identify 15 plants that are in flower and/or fruit and make botanically accurate labels to accompany your specimens that note the collecting locality, date, collector, and additional attributes of the plant. More details will be forthcoming on this exercise.

GARRETT HERBARIUM

An “herbarium” is a library of pressed and identified plants. The Garrett Herbarium is located in the University of Utah Natural History Museum. You will take an orientation tour of this herbarium, and can use it at any time during the course. You will find it especially useful if you can’t identify a plant, or if you want to confirm your identification. It is also useful if you are searching for a particular species and want to see what it looks like first. Herbarium phone number: 581-6520.

TEST, QUIZZES, AND HOMEWORK

Each field trip will include a quiz. Most of these will ask you to identify plants we have learned. Some may require you to key out “unknowns” with the help of your text.

Weekly homework will consist of unknown plants that you attempt to key out with your text. Because of limited texts, we ask that you do this in the classroom on your own time. Your student ID will be activated for you to access the building and classroom 8 AM – 10 PM Monday through Friday.

There will be a final “open-book” exam covering material learned during the class. The exam will consist of two parts: 1) a “practicum” asking you to identify various plants or answer questions about them; 2) a section covering the biology of these plants as discussed in lecture and on field trips.

GRADING

Point assignments: Quizzes + Homeworks, 120 points total. The lowest 2 quiz + homework scores will be dropped. Final Exam, 100 points. Independent collection, 75 points. Grades will be assigned using the 10-point scale as a guideline: 90-100% A, 80- 90% B, etc. This scale may be lowered, but it will not be raised.

5 FIELD BOTANY 2355

SCHEDULE 2007

Date Activities

May 16 Lecture: plant classification, vegetative morphology Lab: Campus walk on vegetative morphology, use of dichotomous keys, tour of the Garrett herbarium at the UMNH.

May 18 Lecture: floral morphology, characteristics of prominent plant families. Lab: Floral morphology and use of keys. Demonstration of Wasatch Flora CD and computer-aided identification.

May 23 Lecture: Great Basin habitats Field trip: Red Butte Canyon—woody plants of riparian and foothill zones.

May 25 Field trip: Skull Valley and Big Spring: Plants of the Great Basin Desert.

May 30 Lecture: Adaptations of plants to drought, xerophytes Field trip: Foothills—forbs of the foothills.

June 1 Field trip: Mill Creek Canyon—midmontane forests and flowers.

June 6 Lecture: Halophytes and salt stress, montane vegetation zones. Field trip: Upper Red Butte Canyon.

June 8 Field trip: Cardiff fork, Big Cottonwood Canyon—upper montane zone.

June 13 Lecture: Impact of humans on vegetation change in the Great Basin Field trip: Silver Lake, Big Cottonwood Canyon—sub-alpine zone.

June 15 Field trip: Uinta Mountains PLANT COLLECTIONS DUE BEFORE FIELD TRIP

June 20 Final exam (regular time in classroom)

NOTES: Lectures begin at 12:55 pm in the classroom (230 JTB). Field trips depart from behind the Skaggs biology building. On days with no lecture, meet behind the Skaggs building at 12:55 instead of the classroom. Don’t be late!

When the weather is bad we will meet in the classroom and practice keying out plants inside.

6 Notes to myself: a pair of 15 seaters reserved (3/29) each day except May 25 (2 12 seaters) and June 15 (one 12, one 15 seater).

Make sure bookstore has ordered ring binders. Call Christi Brown at 581 3541 or 581 8349 with information.

Defensive driving: call risk management, 1-5557

Notes: delete 2nd west desert trip? Red butte garden? Muller park or dimple dell?

Bill Gray

Lous Arnow—grasses?