Identifying Woody Plants (Month 1) — The 21st Century Matriarch

The Identifying Woody Plants field class I am taking at Missouri State University has met 5 times. There have been two off-campus field trips that I’ve posted about previously: Springfield Botanical Gardens and Lovett Pinetum. The other sessions have included walks around the MSU campus identifying trees. Just as in the off-campus field trips, I’ve tried to get good pictures of the trees so that I can include them in my PowerPoint based ‘flashcards’ to help me learn all the woody plants presented in the class (even though I am not taking the class for credit).

In the first class, I tried using my cell phone…juggling it with my small notebook for note taking. It did not work so well; I only got reasonable pictures for three of the trees we encountered.

Black gum – Nyssaceae – *Nyssa sylvatica*

Buckeye – Sapindaceae – Aesculus

For the next campus walk – I used my small point-and-shoot camera and managed more pictures. I had front pockets for both the small notebook and the camera. It was a very hot/sunny day; I wore my fingerless gloves to keep my small notebook dry. I did not feel well during the later parts of the walk even though I was drinking plenty of water.

American Sycamore – Platanaceae – Platanus occidentalis

Flowering dogwood – Cornaceae – *Cornus florida*

Bald cypress – Cupressaceae – Taxodium distichum

Shortleaf pine – Pinaceae – *Pinus* *echinata*

American basswood – Malvaceae – *Tilia americana*

The third walk around campus was easier; I had my system for juggling the notebook and camera…and it wasn’t quite as hot. I also wore my hiking boots, so my feet did not hurt like they did on one previous campus walk. I am still not managing to photograph everything during the walk; for the ones I miss (i.e. not listed in this post) I glean photos from the class charts and/or web searches to populate my study Powerpoint.

Red Maple – Sapindaceae – Acer rubrum

Burning bush – Celastraceae – Euonymous alatus

Northern red oak – Fagaceae – Quercus rubra

Northern catalpa – Bignoniaceae – Catalpa speciosa

Yellow poplar – Magnoliaceae – Liriodendron tulipifera

True cedar – Pinaceae - Cedrus

Siberian elm – Ulmaceae – Ulmus pumila

Sweet gum – Altingaceae – Liquidambar styraciflua

Pin oak – Fagaceae – Quercus palustris

Honeylocust – Fabaceae – Gleditsia triacanthos

There is some memorization involved…but I am beginning to find that I remember the scientific names as well as the common names as I continue to study…adding new woody plants to the list each week. The class is living up to my expectations in helping me expand my identification skill of woody plants of Missouri.

Previous posts about my experiences in the Identifying Woody Plants class at Missouri State University