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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: |
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| 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. |