Syllabus - printable version

On April 1, April 8, and June 5 we will meet in More 234.  All other days will be field days, as noted.  When on campus we will meet in front of Bagley, near Drumheller Fountain.  On most Arboretum days, except where noted, we will meet at the courtyard on the south side of the Graham Visitor's Center.  At the Center for Urban Horticulture we will meet in the McVay (central) courtyard/Commons. We give you extra time to get to these sites, but be there on time or you may have trouble finding us!  See the course website for directions to each location.

We will meet on all field days, rain or shine.  Come prepared for whatever weather is predicted.  On Arboretum days we strongly suggest that you wear waterproof shoes – we will be going out into some very muddy areas. These will not be the days you should wear high heeled shoes and fancy clothes!

You may find it helpful to buy a write-in-the-rain notebook at the University Bookstore. Be sure to write in pencil, not ink, regardless of what paper you use.  If you do not buy a special notebook, a clipboard covered in a plastic bag might be useful.

The Bookstore also has a range of magnifying glasses and field hand lenses.  These are useful when trying to see small parts of flowers in the field, but are not required.

A daily plant list and plant descriptions will be posted to the website.  Please print these out before each class.  They will provide you with a list of the plants to be learned each session as well as with descriptions for each plant. You will probably want to print these off and have them with you to be sure that you have the spelling correct and to reduce the amount of notes you need to take while in the field. There are also photos of the plants available on the website.  The daily plant list and descriptions will be posted a day in advance.    

We also encourage you to buy a copy of the Sunset Western Garden Book.  There is a new edition out that is worth the approximately $30 that it costs.  There are, however, plenty of copies of the old version (which is still OK) available at used bookstores.

If you are having trouble with terms, you might want to buy “Plant identification terminology: An illustrated glossary” by James and Melinda Harris.  It will have good definitions of any terms we will use in this class.  The 1^st edition should be available in used book stores. A new 2^nd edition is out, but the 1^st edition is fine.

Muenscher's Keys to Woody Plants by Edward A. Cope will be useful to those of you that plan to go on and learn additional species.

You will have one written midterm, two plant identification midterms and one plant identification final.  The written midterm will be held in More 234 on April 8 and will cover the principles of nomenclature and plant morphology terms covered in the first lecture..

The plant recognition midterms will be on April 24 and May 13.  The midterms will be held on campus, near Drumheller Fountain.  If the weather is extremely bad, the plant recognition midterms will be held in More 234. You will be shown portions of branches and you will need to be able to identify family, genus, and/or species.

Each midterm is worth 10% of your grade.  Because we have to collect plant specimens for these tests it is very difficult to give make-up plant recognition midterms. This will only be allowed for extreme situations and only if we are notified in advance. You should let us know in advance as soon as possible if you will be out of town for a midterm.

Approximately every two weeks there will be a quiz.  The quiz will focus on two plants you have learned and will ask you a variety of questions such as family, genus, species, where it is native to, or diagnostic traits for that taxon.  You will be able to drop the lowest score, making only 4 of the quizzes count towards the grade. There will be no make-up quizzes - if you miss one, it is the one that will be dropped. If you miss two, you will get a zero for one of the four that count. The quizzes, all together, will count for 10% of your grade.

The final will be held on campus, meeting at Drumheller Fountain, regardless of the weather.  You will be shown entire plants and asked to give the family, genus, and species of a wide variety of plants.  The final is worth 60% of your grade.

Spelling counts! Proper communication of species names requires that the names are correct and clear.  If the name is not correctly spelled but is phonetically correct, you will lose a half a point. If the name is not phonetically correct, you will lose the whole point. Write clearly!  If we can't read your hand-writing we will count it as misspelled.  NOTE: Those of you in landscape architecture, in particular, have been trained to write in all capital letters. In botanical nomenclature, the first letter of the genus is capitalized and the species is not. If you write in all caps, make sure it is clear that the first letter if the genus is larger than the other letters.

In summary:

Midterm 1                                   10%
Midterm 2                                   10%

Midterm 3                                   10%
Quizzes (best 4 out of 5)            10%
Final                                           60%

Much of this class involves simple memorization and where we can we will help you with ways to remember things.  Some people are better at this than others, but there are several things you can do to learn to recognize the plants and remember the names.  Here are just a few:

-          Use the photos of the plants posted on the class web page

-          make flashcards using index cards

-          learn what some of the Latin names mean - they will often describe what a plant looks like

-          get together with friends and go to the arboretum to review plants

-          visit the herbarium (see below) and drill yourself using specimens

This web page also has some great pictures:  http://www.orst.edu/dept/ldplants/index.htm#cade

For checking spelling and accuracy of names: http://plants.usda.gov

You may also do an image search on google.com - just type in the name of the species.  Be careful though - only use the web pages that end in .edu, not .com.

Other helpful web pages are posted on the class page.

We have most of the species you will study in the herbarium at the Center for Urban Horticulture.  It is found just off the lobby in Merrill Hall at CUH. While looking at a herbarium specimen can be very different from a live plant, it can be very useful for reminding yourself about key features.  It allows you to look at all of the plants you have learned in a quick way and you can lay out all of the plants that confuse you, side by side.  We strongly encourage you to use the herbarium to review the plants you have learned in the class. 

DO NOT attempt to take plant parts from campus or Arboretum plants in order to make your own "herbarium."  This is very damaging to sometimes rare and expensive plants! If you are caught doing this in the Arboretum you could be fined!

The herbarium is open for several hours during the week. Hours change every quarter, check the website http://depts.washington.edu/hydeherb/index.shtml for specific hours.

You can also arrange a time to use the specimens by contacting the collections manager, Wendy Descamp, at 685-2589 or wdescamp@u.washington.edu.