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Timothy Walker Study Day on 17th July 2009

PLANT IDENTIFICATION MADE SIMPLE

‘Fantastic’, ‘mind stretching’, ‘learning made fun’ - these were some of the comments at the end of the day ‘Plant Identification Made Simple’ which was led, on 17th July, by Timothy Walker, Director of the Oxford Botanic Gardens.

Timothy began by giving us a brief history, telling us about key people, who, over the centuries, had developed theories for plant classification. His respect for these people was clear.

Our sharp knives and magnifying glasses then came into use for the first time as we looked at some the plants which Timothy had given us; we looked at them in detail as he described what he called ‘the bits of plants’.

The afternoon was taken up with practical work, and great concentration on our part! as we sought to identify more plants from the collection Timothy had brought. In order to do this, Timothy guided us through the keys set out by James Cullen in ‘Practical Plant Identification’

We had all come to the day with different experience and knowledge of plants; we all left having learned much and having benefited from Timothy’s infectious enthusiasm for his subject. Timothy’s last comment was that if we did not remember all the facts etc. yet continued to look at plants in detail, we would always see many beautiful things. By Jen Lovering