Syllabus

All class sessions will include a significant practical component, during which students will participate in activities that will help them meet the course goals. Most activities will involve examining living plant material. The plant material studied each week will depend on availability. Most practical sessions will emphasize the characteristics and value of 1-2 plant families. Students will study the material provided and then key it to species, using identification keys derived from the Flora of Somalia. It is impossible to predict which species will be available each week, so the syllabus focuses on the topics to be discussed.

Students should arrive promptly for all class sections. If illness prevents their attendance, they should ask a fellow student to share information about what was covered. Unfortunately, it may not always be possible to provide the plant materials studied.

Resources for each topic will be posted to https://somalilandbiodiversity.org/plant-taxonomy-resources

PROPOSED SCHEDULE

Topics

  • Introduction: course website, resources, expectations.
  • Taxonomy, systematics, phylogenetics: the interrelationship of these three fields.
  • Why taxonomy is important to anyone working with plants.
  • The botanical hierarchy.

Activities

  • Interpreting alternative displays of taxonomies
  • identifying rank and parent rank of random assortment of names.

Assignment

    • explore three of the following online resources. Identify what they do, what you like best about them, and evaluate how useful they seem to you right now.

Resources

Topics

  • Major evolutionary advances in land plants.
  • Words for describing the vegetative parts of flowering plants.
  • Making your first formal collection.

Activities

  • Class: Study about 3 plants on campus and, together, describe their vegetative features.
  • Groups (3-4 people): describe vegetative features of 3 other plants.

Assignment

    In your field notebook, press the leaves of three different plants and write a description of for each plant. The description, which should be typed, should include the following:
  • Name of collector and date of collection.
  • Location of plant.
  • Description of the plant’s vegetative features, including their habit, leaf arrangement, leaf structure and leaves.

Resources

Topics

  • Review of the reproductive structures of flowering plants.
  • Terminology used to describe flowers and fruits.
  • Using a hand lens.

Activities

  • Class: Study about 3 plants on campus and, together, describe their flowers and, if available, their fruits. .
  • Groups (3-4 people): describe the flowers of 3 other plants.

Assignments

    • In your field notebook, press and describe the flowers of 3 different plants. Press 2 flowers per plant, splitting one of them longitudinally to reveal the location of the ovary and stamens relative to the calyx and corolla. Describe each flower, providing the same information about when and where the plant was located but, for the description, providing information on the flower symmetry, calyx, corolla, stamens, and pistil.

Resources

Submit field notebooks before the end of class.

    • The first hour of the class will be spent studying Somaliland’s largest plant family, Fabaceae.
    The second hour of the class will be used for exam 1. It will cover the material covered in weeks 1-3 of the class.

Topics

  • Fabaceae, Introduction to the family and its 3 traditional groups.
  • Introduction to KeyBase and the use of dichotomous keys in identification.

Activities

  • Class: For 1-2 species of Fabaceae: Build a description of each species by going around the room and then take it through the keys using KeyBase. Use the bracketed version because it is similar to those in the Flora of Somalia.If there is not enough time to build a description in this manner, make it a take-home assignment

Assignment

  • For any genus of Fabaceae in Somaliland, find out whether its description is in OpenHerbarium; and look at its distribution there, based on the records in OpenHerbarium. Now look up the same species in GBIF and POWO. Compare the information you can find in each resource. Write a short report (no more than one typewritten page).
  • Using OpenHerbarium, look at the records of Fabaceae documented there as being present in Somaliland. Click on the name of any species in the records. What do you see? Click on the map tab. What do you notice? Write a short report. Both reports should be submitted before next week’s class.

Resources

Topics

  • Two more of Somaliland’s top 20 families, which ones depends on which are in flower.
  • Writing dichotomous keys. This activity will encourage close observation, increase familiarity with botanical terminology, and develop understanding of the structure an important taxonomic tool.

Activities

  • Key out at least 1 species from each of the two families; build descriptions first by going around the room. Then allow time to key them out on their own.
  • Class: Working with specimens of five different plants, jointly write a key to the five species that have been studied in class.
  • Repeat for a different group of five plant or key out another species from one of the two families.

Assignment

    • Prepare a table comparing the three families studied to date. In which ways are they similar? In which ways are they different? 2) Write a key to the three families.

Resources

Topics

  • One more of Somaliland’s top 20 families, which depends on what is available.
  • Preparing good, well-documented specimens.

Assignment

    • Prepare at least 5 specimens and document them. The specimens should be pressed in newsprint or other paper. They should not be mounted. The documentation required should reflect the form provided.
Advice
    : start making your collection. It is something that needs to be done outside of class. Future classes will have some time to work on keying, probably not enough time.

Resources

Cancelled.

Cancelled.

Field trip

    The purpose of the field trip is to provide an opportunity to study plants in a non-urban environment, practice making observations in the field and preparing good, well documented collections.

Assignment

    • Create an account in OpenHerbarium, enter data from two collections into your personal account.

Resources

Topics

  • Pollination: importance, adaptations; the importance of outcrossing.
  • One family
  • Exam 2

Activities

  • Key out one species from family studied
  • Exam 2 (2 hr)

Assignment

      • Expand table of families to include all families covered.

Resources

Topics

  • Seeds and seedlings: encouraging establishment.
  • Restoring and promoting genetic diversity for natural and managed environments.
  • Two more families.

Activities

  • Key out at least 1 species from each of the two families.
  • Time for asking for assistance in keying out personal collections.

Assignment

    • Study material covered; continue adding to collection.

Resources

Topics

  • Using native diversity to benefit agriculture and range management.
  • The importance of seedbanks
  • Two more families

Activities

  • Key out at least 1 species from each of the two families.
  • Write a key to five of the families studied.

Assignment

      • Explore web sites about seed banks in Africa. Design a study for evaluating germination and establishment success of seeds from two populations of a species.

Resources

Topics

  • Measuring diversity; the importance of baseline data.
  • The importance of taxonomic ability.

Activities

  • Review questions; time to work on collection.
Collections and field notebooks must be submitted by June 8.

Resources

Final examination