Dr M’s University of Reading signature module the legendary Vegetation Survey and Assessment (VSA) module has come to an end for another year (“shame!” I hear you cry!). But, as Dr M was keen to point out, in his end of module address to the assembled students from MSc Plant Diversity and MSc SISS, this is not an end but a beginning of their eXtreme
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In a previous post (here) Dr M explained what the NVC is and how to “do” an NVC survey by collecting quadrat data from representative samples in homogenous stands of vegetation. Here Dr M outlines the procedure for putting an NVC name to your quadrat data. Now, Dr M assumes you have collected your quadrat data, at least five quadrats in each homogenous stand of vegetation.
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There’s none so blind as those who will not see, and plants suffer much more than their fair share from this blindness! It is high time then, for Dr M to introduce this botanical selfie by Dawn Sanders as she embarks on an important research project investigating the global pandemic called “plant blindness”. Plant blindness is both fascinating (why is plant blindness so prevalent?) and
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It’s Dr M’s Birthday and he has been enjoying special Dr M birthday cookies lovingly hand-crafted by his devoted nieces: A well as eating and drinking and partying, birthdays are times of celebration and reflection, and so to all his botanical students, colleagues, disciples and followers and indeed, the whole world, Dr M sends this birthday message of peace, love and eXtreme botanical joy:
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Dr M is teaching his MSc students at University of Reading about Phase 2 surveys and The National Vegetation Classification (NVC). The NVC was developed at Lancaster University in the 1980s when Dr M was a post-doc researcher there working with Andrew Malloch and John Rodwell (the editor of the NVC) during the writing of the NVC and so it is all rather close
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OK if you have read the post here and tested yourself, here are the answers:
Dr M is used to a lot of questions from his students on the MSc Plant Diversity University of Reading! And once they started using the veg key then there’s been a lot more questions! But one of the most frequent is “Dr M, with a rosette plant how can we tell if the leaves are opposite or alternate?”
Finally the day arrived for the latest plant ID test for Dr M’s MSc students, but no ordinary test this one, instead it was to be – Drum Roll – Dr M’s Botany Bingo, yes that’s right Botany Bingo! Unfortunately Dr M was in process of recovering from a flu virus and so instead of the deluxe boxed set of Botany Bingo he had
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Dr M attended the three day Association of Science Education (ASE), at the University of Reading, and he joined the SAPS stand – Science and Plants for Schools – to talk to educators about how to get teachers and students excited about plants and “generate a culture of excitement about plants!” Dr M took along with him some plants and other resources including a coat stand
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What’s the botanical buzz of 2015? Well, Dr M is taking eXtreme botany and #iamabotanist to the Annual Conference of the Association of Science Education (ASE) at University of Reading 7-10 January 2015.