Welcome to Botany.

About the course….

The Botany seminar begins its thirtieth year at Friends’ Central in 2023! The Botany course is my continuing experiment in immersive, engaging education, an approach we will follow as we work to deepen our science understanding through examples, case studies and memorable experiences.  The course will blend traditional botanical studies of taxonomy, flowering plants, pollination, leaves, photosynthesis, seeds, stems and roots with more applied study of trees on campus, food species of interest, medicinal and drug plants, agriculture, and landscape design.

 

Our semester 

The fall months will focus largely on outdoor field work, with a special focus on identifying native wild plants and campus trees. Students will gain substantial proficiency in botanical nomenclature and will learn to recognize many species and families of plants. We will also study the flower and insect pollination in considerable detail. Preparation of herbarium specimens and invitations to visit local gardens and arboreta will give additional experience with living and preserved plant material. Finally, the fall months are about botanical food, from hot peppers (Capsicum chinense) to hot tamales (Zea mays).

Winter !
Finishing foods, we may focus on agriculture, genetically modified organisms in the food supply, and staple cereal grains in the history of human food growing. We might examine wilderness and habitats/biomes. If time permits, an exploration of the supplement industry and plants that are the focus of products sold to promote wellness will raise important questions about the role of science and clinical data in regulating or promoting heath claims.