General Information:

Class meetings: Tuesday/Thursday, Lecture 12:45-2:00 p.m., rm. 102, Eugene Butler Hall, with labs meeting from 2:20-5:10 p.m. in room 004 of the same building . Once underway, we will probably meet, both lecture and lab, in rm. 004.

Teaching personnel: Dr. Hugh D. Wilson and Teaching Assistant Sharon Morton (Department of Soil and Crop Sciences - 845-3048)

Texts: Jones and Luchsinger, Plant Systematics (2nd ed.) = "J&L" and a BOTN 201-level set of teaching material that will be supplemented with class handouts. These include: Monique D. Reed, Key to the Angiosperm Flora of Brazos and Surrounding Counties (packet #157), 'Lab Handouts' (packet #155), and a base-level lecture note series (packet #117). These will be available at 'Copy Corner', Redmond Terrace Mall near junction of George Bush Drive (1710) and Texas Ave. A preliminary version of M. Reed's key to dicot is currently on-line

Course Objectives/Philsophy

Biological systematics defines natural diversity through formal recognition of phyletic lineages. Given the essential, long-term nature of human contact with the global flora, botanical systematics is, perhaps, the most ancient of human scientific enterprises. As a result, resolution of vascular plant lineages has progressed from a structural or morphological base inititated in the 1700s to current, molecular methods of lineage tracking. While this course deals, to some extent, with plant systematics as an academic discipline, our main focus this Spring revolves around the use of systematic data to develop the student's ability to define and recognize vascular plant lineage groups. We focus, initially, on development of a botanical vocabulary. Once this is established, the course moves through the vascular plant taxonomic matrix, following current classification systems to identify recognition features, or 'key characteristics', of lineage groups, with special emphasis on flowering plants.

Since students enrolled are often not based in plant systematics, or botany for that matter, the formal content of this course is only slightly extended from that offered in our sophomore-level course, Botany 201. However, this formal material is compressed from a full semester lecture sequence to a 6 week series of intense lecture/lab meetings. We then use the 'field', i.e. the very diverse Spring flora of central Texas, to link our initial survey of vascular plant lineages to living representatives. Field work centers on excursions to local sites for exploration and collection, using during the Tuesday labs, followed by lab-based identification, often during the Thursday labs. Our initial field objective will be to develop a familarity with 'standard' floristic elements of the local Post-Oak Savannah as exemplified by the flora of Lick Creek Park. Once this is established, we focus on a more detailed examination of micro-habitat diveristy (outcrops, prairies, bogs, etc.) of the Navasota Flora.