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BIO 432 Field Botany Phil Ganter 301 Harned Hall 963-5782 |
A
cactus has no leaves - But
you can see the organization of buds on its stem. Looking down, you
can see that it is a spiral arrangement. The spiral is based on the
Fibonacci series |
Plant Morphology:
material and links
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| Academic Page | Tennessee State Home page |
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Purpose of the page:
Plant identification books and websites come in many flavors. Some will expect that the user has command of the specialized terms used by botanists to describe plants. We want to use these sources. They contain the best information. However, not knowing the terminology can make using them difficult. Rather than turn away from them, you can go to a web resource to get an explanation (which I think of as more than a definition) of the term.
Links
Remember that, if you are looking for an explanation of a particular term, you may find it on a page dedicated to trees even if you are looking at a herb. Leaf shape terms apply to all leaves.
The Natural Resource Skills Course at Sir Sanford Fleming College in Lindsay, Ontario has a page with pictures on tree morphology. It concentrates on northern trees, but has lots of valuable information. The American Museum of Natural History has a short section on plant morphology.
An excellent resource for botany students is Botany Online - The Internet Hypertextbook. The editor is Peter Sengbusch from the University of Hamburg. The are both English and German editions. There is a page on Flowering Plant Morphology which explains much of the terminology needed to understand the keys.
Another useful site for tree terminology is at the Trees of Alabama and the Southeast website. Click on the terminology link on the left. There are lots of pictures.
There are pictures of various fruit types (and a key to them) at the California State University's CSUBIOWEB. This is useful if you don't know a hesperidium from a drupe from a true berry. The same department also maintains a series of pages that act as a key to the fruits (both fleshy and dry)
There are images of leaf and stem terms at a site developed by James Manhart of the Texas A&M University herbarium. The site is produced by the Bioinformatics Working Group. This page is a bit different, so a word on how to use it. Click on the folder which contains the info you need to see (example: leaf margins). In the folder is a webpage (it has the htm suffix). Click on the webpage and you get a drawing of each term. Click on the drawing and you get a picture.
Flowers are very complex (why would that be so?) but we will simplify them as much as possible. Two good sites are a lab page by Ross Konig at Eastern Connecticut and the flower page of Botany Online. There is also information on the Basic Flower ground plan available. The American Museum of Natural History has a short section on flower morphology.
A pronunciation guide for botanical terms is maintained by Curtis Clark of California State Polytechnic University. Just click on the speaker icon next to the them and you hear the term pronounced.
Some morphology sites have a narrower focus. The United Kingdom's Agrifor program is an interesting one that has links to detailed morphologies of corn, bananas, and cassava. You aren't likely to find any of these on your collecting trips, but the sites are wonderful. Most are the product of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture Research in Ibadan, Nigeria.
Another worthwhile diversion is a trip to the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), webpage. This research center in Cali, Columbia is committed to the improvement of crops in tropical agroecosystems in the Americas, Asia, and Africa.
There are 16 cooperating agroresearch centers worldwide that have grown from a desire to coordinate and support research in developing countries. The parent organization is the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Startup funding came from the World Bank, and the United Nations (FAO and UNDP).
These are the terms you must go out and define:
Plant Morphology
Leaf Morphology:
Flower Morphology
Fruit Morphology
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Go back to the Identification page
Last updated July 11, 2003
