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Original URL: http://www.colby.edu/info.tech/BI211/

 

Biology 211 Image  An introduction to the principles and practice of flowering plant taxonomy. Emphasis is placed on acquiring the facility to use appropriate terminology in order to identify plants, as well as understanding the historical context and investigative procedures of taxonomists in designing a classification. Of particular importance is gaining an understanding of the philosophical bases in taxonomy and the relevance of this field to other areas of biology. 
 
Course
Objectives: 
  1. Learn vegetative and reproductive features and terminology that are useful in the identification of flowering plants.
  2. Gain ability to use published keys for the identification of flowering plants.
  3. Learn to recognize some of the common and unusual families of flowering plants in Maine.
  4. Understand the principles of plant taxonomy, including evolutionary trends, patterns of speciation, biogeography, and floral biology.
  5. Gain an understanding of the relationships between evolutionary mechanisms, evolutionary history, and the classification of organisms.
  6. Develop an ability to critically examine the extent to which a classification system reflects relationships between organisms. 
 
Web Resources for Use in this Course
Syllabus  Goals for the course, exam schedule, plant collection requirements, and family recognition information. 
Schedule  Lecture and laboratory schedule and reading assignments. 
Computer
Resources
for
Downloading: 
Click here for a Microsoft Word document containing the sylabus and schedule. 
Click here for a Macintosh version of the polyclave key for flowering plant family identification. 
Click here to download Macintosh software (MacClade 2.1) for cladistic analysis. 
Click here to download a MS Word document of blank herbarium labels. 
Guide to Flowering 
Plant Family 
Recognition 
This is a descriptive and photographic tour of some families in the Magnoliophyta. These still developing pages can help students learn to recognize on sight members of this course's 60 required flowering plant families. 
Flowering Plant
Family Key 
This is a polyclave key that allows you to select from among characteristics available in the specimen at hand, rather than following a sequence found in a traditional, dichotomous, printed key. It is especially useful if the specimen is fragmentary, as with archaeological or anthropological specimens, in which only part of a plant is represented. This key is world-wide in scope covering all flowering plants. Families do not always follow Cronquist, however, but recognize segregate families in many cases, thus effectively providing in some cases a key to subfamilies or below. 
Checklist of Vascular 
Plants Native and 
Naturalized in 
New England 
List of the 2,916 vascular plant taxa (species and infraspecific taxa) found within New England, as recorded in the USDA PLANTS database. State occurances for each taxon are included. Be aware that some differences in nomenclature occur between this list and Gleason and Cronquist's Manual of Vascular Plants of Notheastern United States and Adjacent Canada 2nd Edition, 1991. A list of these differences is being compiled and will be posted here.
Field Trip Photos:  Field Trip #1, Sept. 16, 1995: South of Cooks Corner, Hwy 24
Field Trip #2, Sept. 23, 1995: Colby Bog and Horsepoint, Belgrade
Field Trip #3, Sept. 25, 1995: Martin Stream Valley
Other Web Resources  A variety of internet resources related to this course, biological systematics, and plant biology in general. 

Prof. Ray Phillips
rbphilli@Colby.edu
Assistant Professor of Biology and
Director of Information Technology Services
Colby College
Copyright © Ray Phillips 1995, 1996, 1997