So, here at last, in this taxonomic journey through the Book of Stace, after #1 and #2 we have arrived at our final destination, #3, tada!. This is #3 of 3, in TV terms this is the denouement, this is where Sherlock H or Hercule P gathers everyone together in the room and through a series of blistering, breathtaking, brain-boggling literary couplets, reveals the identity
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It seems only a moment ago Dr M was deleting his talk at the last Annual Exhibition Meeting of the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (Natural History Museum, London 2013 – and if you missed it, he retrieved it and you can revisit it here and here). But now it’s all botanical stations go once more, and Saturday will see the 2014 BSBI AEM, this
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Recently, Dr M set his MSc Plant Diversity and SISS students what he likes to call “The Stace test” – a couple of plants provided by Dr M for his students to key out using the general key to families and then moving on to the detailed keys to ID to genus and species. The first task, as with any plant ID, is to check
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As a young botany student at Bangor University in the 1970s, Dr M was brought up on the Flora of the British Isles widely and affectionately known as “CTW” amongst the botanical community (published in 1962 by A.R. Clapham, T.G. Tutin & E.F. Warburg). Dr M always retains great affection for that beautifully produced greenish volume which went through three editions before being superseded by New
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Dr M first discovered Niki Simpson’s work while admiring the colour illustrations in the Vegetative Key. The clarity and accuracy of the illustrations seemed to reach a new level and it was only a shame that there were not more in that volume! Meeting her unexpectedly at a botanical illustration event in London recently, Dr M was determined to learn more about her approach
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So says one of Dr M’s MSc Plant Diversity students, and, well she’s right of course! It is fast becoming a key tool of the eXtreme botanists trade.
Dr M has set his students some homework. Having already started to look at the top-twenty plant families this term, Dr M has asked his students to construct a key to the top fourteen families of dicotyledons (broad-leaved flowering plants).
Dr M’s first lesson with MSc Plant Diversity students and MSc SISS included a tour round the woodland known as the Wilderness on the University of Reading award-winning green campus.
Dr M will be meeting his new University of Reading MSc Plant Diversity and MSc Species Identification and Survey Skills (SISS) students for his first big teach-in on Thursday.
It’s one thing to rampage the ramparts and scale the slopes of Maiden Castle, but have you survived Dr M’s chalk grassland mini-quiz?