Tag Archives: learn plants

Twenty-six botanists from Dr M’s Vegetation Survey and Assessment MSc class have produced the first ever living botanical glossary known to science (unless, of course, you know better?!).

As regular visitors will know, Dr M is currently teaching British tree identification in his Vegetation Survey and Assessment module on the MSc Plant Diversity and MSc Species Identification and Survey Skills. Amongst the features which help in putting a name to a tree include the twigs, leaves and buds. Buds come in all shapes and sizes and colours, all can be helpful for ID.

Dr M in full flow talking to the trees! (image courtesy of Waheed Arshad). Dr M is currently teaching British tree identification in his Vegetation Survey and Assessment module on the MSc Plant Diversity and MSc Species Identification and Survey Skills. During a recent 2-hour walk in autumnal sunshine, the class collected twigs and leaves from no fewer than 27 genera.

The BBC and nature have become synonymous not least through the extraordinary work of David Attenborough. The BBC Nature website is well worth a visit for information, images and videos on plants and their habitats. The BBC Nature Places pages provide information from all over the world, follow the UK link to British plants and habitats.

Dr M has already posted on a couple of online aids to tree ID: the SAPS key to trees and shrubs and the Natural History Museum (NHM) urban tree survey key. These two keys are tools to help the beginner ID common species covering around 90 species each.

The Botanical Society of the British Isles website is an excellent place to start or continue you botanical meanderings. BSBI online provides wealth of information about plants, plant recording and links to other resources. Here Dr M provides a pictorial flavour of what is on offer but visit the site, check it out and use it!  

This key is listed by BSBI (Botanical Society of the British Isles) as “A free and easy online key for beginners, by Quentin Groom“. So here, Dr M gives it the once over. It is undeniably free, but is it easy? And, more importantly, is it accurate and useful?

In Dr M’s survey of online plant ID aids he has already taken a look at the SAPS key to trees and shrubs from Cambridge University. Here Dr M has a look at an interactive key to 88 species of trees and shrubs from the Natural History Museum key to Nature project.

As the University teaching term gets closer Dr M has been investigating plant ID aids which might be tested by his students and some of which might even be useful! Here Dr M has a look at an interactive key from the Science and Plants for School project (SAPS), Cambridge University.

Question: How many native conifers are there in Britain (conifer = seed plants bearing cones rather than flowers)?