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  Introduction to BOTA 505
  The Department of Botany at the University of British Columbia is a large and diverse group. New graduate students arrive from all over the world each year, with interests ranging from ecology to molecular genetics to evolution. As such, incoming students have varying levels of experience in the field. The Department of Botany created BOTA 505, a graduate field botany course, as a way to introduce new students to BC’s diversity as well as to promote an understanding of natural botany, as opposed to botany-in-the-lab, where many of us spend most of our time. 
  The course includes a number of field trips as well as an independently organized group project. For this course we went on the following field trips, followed by lessons on how to identify species using keys:
  • Manning Park - Alpine botany
  • Capilano Park - Mycology
  • Pacific Spirit Park - Bryology
  • Sooke (Vancouver Island)
    - Marine botany
  • Cowichan (Vancouver Island)
    - Garry Oak ecology
 


For the group project component, we chose to conduct an inventory of bryophytes found in the Vancouver area, using Stanley Park’s Tatlow Trail as our sample pool. Our goal was three-fold: (1) to learn about bryophyte diversity, (2) to organize and execute a field project, and (3) to showcase our findings on a publicly accessible website so that others may be able to learn about the tiny plants that are so abundant in the forest.
 

Learn more about the BOTA 505 Class of 2005-2006 who created this website...

By Jacqueline Monaghan and Sharon Jeffery

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© 2006 Department of Botany, University of British Columbia
 
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