Workshops: June 17 & 24 - Early Season Grasses

Field Identification of Early-Season Grasses (Poaceae)

led by Bill Moorhead

This plant identification workshop focuses on identification and ecology of grasses (family Poaceae) that are detectable and identifiable in the field in late spring and early summer. The emphasis will be on the “cool-season” grasses, but we will also cover a number of other important grass species that are commonly encountered and are identifiable at this time of year. We will cover the basic features of grasses that distinguish them from other grass-like plants, the terminology used in identification manuals to describe and distinguish grass species, the characteristics of major groups, distinguishing warm-season from cool-season grasses, distinguishing invasive and other non-native species from native species, endangered grass species, wetland indicator values and other ecological affinities of various species.

The workshop is broken into two days:

o The first day that is largely devoted to introductory lecture and lab.

o The second day that is entirely devoted to travelling to representative habitats and their grasses at several sites.

Participants may register for one or both days. Grasses are a difficult group, and it is recommended that serious students who do not consider themselves advanced students register for both days. If you do not consider yourself an advanced student of grasses and can only attend one session, we recommend the first rather than the second day, as we will not be able to cover the basics again on the second day. People who prefer to, or are only able to, register for only one day of the workshop are welcome, but first preference for space will be given to people registering for both days, so there is the possibility that one-day-only registrants may be “bumped’ out of the workshop by people registering for both days, even if they are registering later than the one-day-registrants.

Taxonomy will follow The New England Wildflower Society’s GoBotany web-site and Arthur Haines' Flora Novae Angliae.

Please contact instructor Bill Moorhead, at whmoorhead@optonline.net or 860-567-4920, if you have any questions about the level and content of the workshop (particularly as they relate to decisions about taking only one day vs. both days of the workshop).

BILL MOORHEAD is an independent consulting field botanist based in western Connecticut. He has specialized for 25 years in the search for populations of rare plants and their habitats, and the study of plant communities and the factors determining their species composition and distribution. He leads plant and plant community walks and canoe-trip “eco-tours”, and teaches plant identification workshops in difficult plant groups, such as sedges, grasses, asters and goldenrods, as well as invasive species and their native look-a-likes.

NOTE: This workshop needs a minimum of 12 participants to run.

Continuing Education Units Available:
TBA

Location: Aton Forest (270 North Colebrook Rd. Norfolk, CT)
Date: Wednesdays, June 17 & 24, 2015
Time: 8:30AM – 5:00PM