Overview

Wild Flowers (plant taxonomy) is the study of flowering plants and some of their nonflowering relatives such as ferns and conifers. Close attention is paid to reproductive structures, identification, classification, phylogenetic relationships, and plant habitats.

Wild Flowers is a field-oriented course and students must participate in a nine-day workshop held in June/July at the Kananaskis Field Station at Barrier Lake (70 km west of Calgary). Students are responsible for paying their own board and lodging (approximately $350) in addition to course tuition. Students must register in time for a June 1 start date. The course ends August 31 and students will have no option to extend. More information is listed in the workshop details.

Learning Objectives

When students have completed BIOL 321 they should be able to accomplish the following:

1. Describe the morphology and evolutionary trends of vegetative and reproductive parts of vascular plants.
2. Discuss various aspects of the scientific naming of plants.
3. Prepare dichotomous keys to identify plants.
4. Distinguish selected plant families, genera, and species from each other by using botanical keys.
5. Collect, identify, and prepare herbarium mounts of plants.
6. Draw floral diagrams and write floral formulae of flowering plants.
7. Describe various processes of classification, and discuss their strengths and weaknesses.
8. Compare different systems of classification of vascular plants.

Outline

The following topics discussed in the book by Dirk Walters and David Keil constitute the outline for this course.

1. Introduction to plant taxonomy
2. Botanical nomenclature and naming of plants
3. Morphology of vegetative and reproductive parts
4. Botanical descriptions and literature
5. Collecting and preserving plants
6. Taxonomic characters
7. Systems of classification: artificial, phenetic, phylogenetic, cladistic
8. Experimental plant systematics
9. Nature and use of botanical keys
10. Detailed study of selected plant families (this study will take place in the workshop)

Evaluation

To receive credit for BIOL 321, you must attend the field workshop, achieve a course composite grade of at least “D” (50 percent), and a grade of at least 50 percent on the final examination. The weighting of the composite grade is as follows:

To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University's online Calendar.

Course Materials

Textbooks

Moss, E. H. 1994. Flora of Alberta, J. G. Packer, reviser. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto.

Walters, D. and Keil, D. 1996. Vascular Plant Taxonomy. 4th. ed. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.

Other Materials

The course materials also include a student manual and a magnifying hand lens.

Special Instructional Features

Approval to offer this course is dependent upon a minimum registration of twelve students. Registration begins March 1, with a minimum of 12 and maximum of 19 students. The course begins June 1 and ends August 31. Extensions are not possible. The nine-day field workshop will be held from the evening of July 3, 2008 to the afternoon of July 11, 2008. The room and board charges for the Kananaskis Field Station are approximately $360 plus GST for nine days, are payable at the field station, and are in addition to the course registration fee. These prices are subject to minor adjustments. Contact the course coordinator for further details.