Class Details

The Desire for Botany: Botany for Herbalists
 

This class is designed to empower students to positively identify plants and increase their knowledge and use of wild growing medicinal plants. As the herbal community increases our collective ability to identify and use California native plants, we will notably add to the growing body of knowledge regarding California medicinal plants.
 

Upon successful completion of the course students should be able to

• Recognize plant parts and describe them
• Use botanical vocabulary
• Understand general concepts of botanical classification and groupings such as the families and genera
• Be familiar with the Jepson Manual key to families
• Understand how to use the family keys in the Jepson Manual for the Buttercup, Mint, Snapdragon and other families
• Recognize important medicinal members of Buttercup, Mint, Snapdragon, other families
• Definitively identify plants
• Communicate with colleagues regarding specific plants
• Understand the strengths and weaknesses of keys
• Locate online and media resources for plant identification and classification
• Understand the basics of ethical wildcrafting.

Class Schedule Class will meet on Saturday May 22nd and Sunday 23rd from 10 to 5pm. Note on the schedule. Sometimes Mother Nature does not cooperate with blooming times as delegated by my schedule. While this is my best guess of what will be in bloom in the end of may, we will work with the material on hand.
 

Materials required:
The Jepson Manual of Higher plants of California Full Citation: Hickman, James, ED. 1993 Jepson Manual of higher plant of California. University of California press, Berkeley (New for $80 and used for $45 on Amazon).
Botany Dissection kit that includes millimeter ruler, scalpel, two dissecting needles and fine noses tweezers (From $12 to $25 dollars). An example can be found online at http://www.drinstruments.com/xq/ASP/pid.391/cat.18/qx/product.htm
Magnifying lens or loupe (10-20X magnification). You can find these online from $6 – $35
 

Materials Provided: I will bring a dissecting microscope to class for people to use to see smaller details. I will also provide relevant handouts