PRACTICAL 3.1 - Botanical Field Trip

We will be going into the field to collect material you will be examining in the next two weeks in the lab. This session will also start you off on your herbarium project. Bring sneakers to wear in the field as well as two plastic bags for collecting plants.


A. Collection of Bryophytes & Pteridophytes

You will work in groups of approximately five for this excercise based on your seating in the lab. Essentially each team will collect different Bryophytes and Ferns.

You need to collect at least one specimen of a fertile Bryophyte (i.e. with capsule). You also want at least one species of leafy liverwort and one species of moss.

leafy liverwort

moss

 

You need to collect at least FOUR different species of fern. One must be fertile with spores present. You need to bring the entire plant including roots.
                                           Ferns

 

B. Herbarium Project

Each person must work on this project on their own to submit an individual herbarium.

Almost 700 plants occur in the wild in Barbados, outside of cultivation, while in the Lesser Antilles as a whole this number approaches 3,000. It is important that you appreciate this diversity and a first step in doing this is to recognise a few major families. Using the booklet "Flowering Plant Families of Barbados" select 5 families. Each student will then collect 25 plants in flower or fruit belonging to these 5 families. You will dry these in a plant press designated to your group. When dry, mount the plants on individual sheets of white paper providing the following information in the bottom right hand corner:

1. Scientific name of plant (if known)

2. Common names(s) of plant (if any)

3. Date of collection

4. Site of collection

5. Habitat

6. Collector

The object of this exercise is to familiarise you with flowering plant families - not simply to learn scientific names of plants. Consult Carrington (1993) Wild Plants of Barbados for help in identifying the plants. This personal herbarium will be returned to you.