Dr M continues his quest for the ultimate plant identification video at the Enhancing Fieldwork Learning Showcase Event 2013 – at the Field Studies Council in Betws-y-Coed, in the glorious Snowdonia National Park. Dr M’s presentation on Saturday afternoon reminds the Showcase Event audience that the ability to identify common plants is a key skill needed by graduates entering the conservation, ecology and environmental consultancy sectors.
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Dr M’s twin loves, botany and music, find a fitting union at the last night of the BBC Proms tonight at the Royal Albert Hall, London with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Chorus all conducted by the wonderful Marin Alsop
Dr M continues his quest for botanical videos… This time Dr M has come across the Test Tube videos which includes a series about trees in Britain by Markus Eichhorn a botanist from Nottingham University.
If you have read Dr M’s eXtreme botany manifesto you will know that Dr M is an advocate of video as a medium for teaching botany, for example learning species identification. Dr M is discussing these issues at INTECOL in London today and in September at the Enhancing Fieldwork Learning Showcase Event.
Dr M is warming up for the INTECOL Conference in London this week where he will be discussing using video for plant ID. In preparation, Dr M has been perusing botany videos on the Internet for quantity and quality and here Molly Marquand (seen here previously on New England Asteraceae) explains about different kinds of monocot. Check out NewEnglandWild for more videos on monocots and other plants.
As part of the centenary celebrations of the British Ecological Society, London hosted the 11th INTECOL Congress entitled “Ecology: Into the next 100 years” from 18-23 August. Dr M is not missing the opportunity to take eXtreme botany to INTECOL to underline the importance of enhancing plant ID skills among ecologists as well as students and the general public at large.
Dr M is pleased to share this plant ID video about identification of the large plant family Asteraceae starring one of Dr M’s previous Plant Diversity Masters students, Molly Marquand!
Dr M loves these videos by Dr Fred Rumsey of the Natural History Museum, London! Dr Fred is a great botanist and his expertise and natural enthusiasm is a winning combination in this series of seasonal botanical walks in which he introduces a range of plants from different habitats through the seasons. Very inspirational!
Dr M has been posting Poaceae of late. His series on the Tribes of grasses features details of British grass genera including quite intimate details of the grass spikelet (as the Poaceae song says: the flowers are reduced to spikelets strange yet magical!). But the beginning botanist might find this a touch overwhelming and Dr M can almost hear the cries: “Dr M! do
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Dr M is particularly fond of grasses! Grasses are an important group of plants with more than 10 000 species worldwide. In Britain there are over 150 species of grasses and they are an important component of all habitat types not just grasslands (pastures, meadows), but also woodland, heathland and wetlands. Grasses are important as food for grazing animals. But grasses are also valuable
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