Welcome to Botanical Workshops
For the past 15 years, I have been teaching botanical identification workshops to amateurs and professionals. I have taught workshops in spring and summer sedge/grass identification, composite (Asteraceae) identifications, and wetland and wetland plant identification .
Offerings 2024
Sedge-Grass Workshop
August 20-23, 2024
Waterville, Ohio
The workshop combines targeted field trips and identification in a casual lab setting. For this workshop, we will be identifying over 100 graminoids (sedges, grasses and rushes) in the four days. Approximately 50 percent of the species will be grasses, 40% sedges and 10% rushes.
Goal
I began teaching botanical workshops in 2007, at the request of several Ohio agency personnel to provide a more detailed review of the wetland plant identification, rare species (many area sedges/grasses) and wetland monitoring (especially the Vegetative Index of Biotic Integrity [VIBI]). After what was originally planned as a single class, has grown to over 25 workshops in the past 20 years. I have enjoyed teaching and comparing notes with many from the US Corps of Engineers, EPA, USDA, county, state and national parks, US forest service, university professors, consultants, and private citizens. Each workshop is informative, detailed, fun, and taught to all skill levels. Whether you have never keyed a plant before or are looking to enhance your skills, all are welcome. No previous plant identification experience is needed.
These workshops visit several of the most diverse areas in the region. The Oak Openings region of Ohio has one of, if not the most diverse set of graminoids than anywhere north of the coastal plain of the southeast United States. Also, about 1/3 of off all the rare species are found in this region. Our workshops will visit the Black Swamp (clay-dominated) and Oak Openings (sand-dominated) regions. We will see many of these rare species of the area along with the common species that grow throughout Ohio and the surrounding states. Most importantly, everyone will learn how to key out your own unknowns and to be able differentiate different species.