BI 124 - Western New York Flora

Fulfills SUNY General Education – Natural Sciences.

Course Outcomes
Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:

INTRODUCTION TO PLANT TAXONOMY

• define taxonomic terms;
• become familiar with the terms associated with the classification of plants; and
• explain interrelationship between allied sciences.

HISTORY OF PLANT CLASSIFICATION

• describe the history of plant classification;
• explain classification of plants based on habitat, numbers and phylogeny; and
• describe other contemporary systems.

PRINCIPLES OF TAXONOMY

• distinguish between major and minor categories of classification; and
• describe the morphological criteria used to determine taxonomy.

PHYLOGENETIC CONSIDERATIONS

• explain the significance of phylogeny to taxonomy;
• describe the phyletic concepts; and
• discuss contributions to phyolgenetic knowledge.

CURRENT SYSTEMS OF CLASSIFICATIONS

• describe the classification system developed by Bentham and Hooker;
• describe the classification system developed by Engler and Prantl; and
• describe the classification system developed by Benale, Weinstein, Pulle, Skottsberg, Besey, Haller and Hutchinson.

FIELD AND HERBARIUM TECHNIQUES

• Describe how to prepare a specimen for collection;
• Describe how to collect specimens;
• Explain how to store specimens; and
• Discuss how specimens are typed.

FIELD AND PLANT COLLECTIONS

• describe the various locations where field trips will be made to collect specimens including Zoar Valley, Botanical gardens, Bog/ecosystems, Forest/ecosystems, Meadow/ecosystems; Sculpture Park – Ashford;
• discuss the plant identification procedures; and
• explain the final stages of herbarium preparation.

HERBARIUM COLLECTION

• Collect 100 native plants; and
• Properly identify and label the collected plants including genus and species.