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.
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.
Love plants? Love botany? Want to make a career out of it? Well Dr M has, with his interest and love of plants dating back to age 11 and no doubt before, though currently Dr M’s memory banks don’t allow much recall prior to age 11!
Dr M spent a long weekend in the English Lake District by Wastwater, the deepest lake on the Lake District and just down the road from Scafell Pike which reaches around 1000 m and is shown here hidden in cloud.
Why not get out and see some botany this weekend? You know you want to!
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!
There are a growing number of online forums and communities providing free help with plant (and other wildlife) observations and identification. Dr M has already posted on the NHM Nature Plus Plants” community, here Dr M checks out the Open University’s iSpot community.
There are a growing number of online forums and communities providing free help with plant (and other wildlife) observations and identification. Here Dr M checks out the Natural History Museum’s Nature Plus community.
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.