Plant Identification — Level 2
NRTG’s MicroCourses offer a dynamic training pathway that’s as flexible as it is enriching to build expertise. Our Plant Identification — Level 2 MicroCourse, spanning four hours, delivers in-depth training in an easily digestible format. It’s designed to maximize your skills for immediate application.
Once you’ve acquired basic plant identification skills, it’s essential to venture into nature and begin using botanical keys independently. This is particularly crucial for more challenging taxa like sedges, hawthorns, willows, grasses, asters, and goldenrods, commonly encountered during fieldwork or exploration. While mastering these challenging taxa requires years of practice, several strategies can accelerate your progress along the way.
In our Plant Identification Level 2 MicroCourse, we will delve deeper into important botanical terminology to enhance your familiarity with various plants encountered in nature. We’ll also explore the anatomy of difficult plant groups and discuss which characteristics to note and photograph when initiating species identification. Additionally, we’ll examine herbarium scans from various groups, or you can collect plant samples to work with during the course.
This course caters to students, young professionals, gardeners, or plant enthusiasts with a beginner level of plant identification knowledge seeking to enhance their skills and become more adept at identifying plants effectively.
Program Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this program, you will be able to:
- Identify challenging plant taxa, such as asters, grasses, sedges, rushes, willows, and goldenrods, using diagnostic morphological features including phyllaries, ligules, spikelets, and leaf arrangement.
- Interpret habitat and ecological context by using site conditions such as moisture regime, disturbance history, plant community composition, and soil indicators to narrow species identification.
- Use regional botanical keys independently by following leads, interpreting botanical terminology, and recording diagnostic characters.
- Use botanical terminology accurately in written and verbal communication when describing plant features in field notes, reports, or group discussions.
- Record high-quality field documentation by producing clear field notes and photographs that capture scale, habitat, associated species, and key diagnostic traits that support accurate plant identification.
This course is approved for 4 Continuing Education Credits (CECs) under the Society for Ecological Restoration’s (SER) Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner (CERP) Program. Participants are responsible for uploading their certificates at ser.submittable.com to receive CECs.
Instructor Profile
Jennifer Dyson
Jennifer has been an Ecologist for 15 years and has a strong passion for botany. She has worked for non-profits, government, consulting, and academia through her career. Her formal botanical training in species identification and specimen collection came from Cape Breton University, Western University, and the Royal Botanical Gardens, Canada. She is especially interested in restoration of terrestrial habitats and invasive species management. Jenn’s career started in Nova Scotia, transitioned to Ontario after doing a M.Sc., and has now led her to Manitoba. She has continued to educate herself and grow her skill set through courses and certifications, such as becoming an ISA Certified Arborist and completing training in wetland evaluation.
Rebecca Hay
Rebecca Hay is a terrestrial ecologist who has worked for nearly twenty years in the private, non-profit, and government sectors in Ontario, Canada with a specialization in botanical field investigations including plant inventories, vegetation classification and mapping, and wetland assessments. She has an undergraduate degree in Environment and Resource Studies and a diploma in Horticulture. The majority of her career has involved the completion of environmental impact studies and environmental assessments, requiring the documentation and evaluation of natural features; assessment of project impacts on natural features; development of mitigation measures to avoid, minimize or offset negative impacts; and the application of relevant policies and legislation. She is also an avid gardener with an interest in native and edible plants, herbalism, and foraging.
Thomas Munson
Thomas Munson holds a Bachelor of Environmental Studies degree from University of Waterloo, and a Restoration of Natural Systems Diploma and Masters of Science degree from the University of Victoria. He is a Professional Agrologist and Certified Wildlife and Danger Tree Assessor. He worked with First Nations in the Yukon Territory, British Columbia, and Colombia, South America for much of his career. Thomas has carried out work in the botanical field via ethnobotany studies, forestry and vegetation inventory and environmental impact assessment. Thomas worked for many years as Environmental Technician for City of Victoria Parks, in ecological restoration and management of Garry oak ecosystems and their rare plant species. He has worked on long term ecological vegetation monitoring for Metro Vancouver in the unique ecosystem of Burns Bog in Delta, BC, for 18 years. He teaches an introductory course through the University of Victoria on ecological and cultural restoration, and maintains an active interest in community ecological restoration projects in the Coastal Douglas-fir ecosystems of southern Vancouver Island.