Most of us get intimidated by seemingly complex botanical terms and scientific names that are hard to remember. However, it is not essential to know these terms or remember the scientific names for plant identification. For those of us who think that all plants look alike, you will be amazed by the incredible number of morphological characters that help us distinguish one species from the other. All it takes is a little curiosity and a keen eye for careful observation of the right characters. You will immediately realize that plants give us so many clues to their identity that it almost seems like they are begging to be identified.
The science of identifying plants is similar to the logic of scientific deduction. Every plant exhibits a wide range of morphological features that can be viewed as signatures of each species. A combination of such features makes every species unique. These features are just like clues to solving a mystery, the mystery of decoding plants affinities and familial relationships. Our job then as a detective is to merely follow a fixed sequence of enquiry, which is nothing but a step wise process that guides us as an investigator from one clue to the other, helping us eliminate competing hypothesis at every step and taking us closer to the identity of the species.
In this workshop we will familiarize ourselves with this process of deducing/inferring the affinities of a plant, and learn some basic botanical terminology and characters that guide us to the identity of different species or at least help us narrow down our search to a handful of species by eliminating the rest.
The workshop is designed for students who are either genuinely interested in plants or need to familiarize themselves with some basic vegetation identification techniques, as a part of addressing a larger question of interest. The workshop will not give importance to putting a scientific name tag on a plant. Although that is the final result, it is not as important or informative as being able to distinguish one plant from the other. At the end of the workshop we hope to change the way you look at plants by offering you a different perspective towards field identification of plants.
The workshop will have two components- first, the classroom component where we will learn the basics of plant identification, the process of inference, and elimination. Secondly, the field component where we will try and tackle the challenges of observing plants in the field. Participants interested in enrolling for this workshop need not have any prior knowledge of botany. If you are interested in plants and are eager to learn the techniques, tools and tricks to identifying plants, then you are an ideal candidate for the workshop.
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