Identifying Grasses in Spring

This course is fully booked on this date but you can join the waiting list (by scrollling to the bottom of the page) in case space becomes available or it is run on another date.

This grass identification course is designed to enable anyone to identify grasses by their vegetative (non-flowering) characteristics and should be especially valuable to those engaged in botanical survey work, teachers of ecology as well as to amateur botanists. In the laboratory you will become familiar with grass parts and diagnostic features for certain species and will also gain valuable practice in using Keys (AIDGAP and Hubbard) to identify grasses. You will then practice identifying grasses during field excursions to pasture, downland, heathland and woodland habitats.You may also carry out a small ecological project to investigate distribution of certain grasses in relation to soil type. Your tutor will use a variety of teaching methods during the course to give you lots of opportunities to practice your new-found grass identification skills.

Judith Allinson is a former member of FSC staff and co-author of the AIDGAP Key to the Vegetative Stages of Grasses. She spent several years carrying out botanical surveys for English Nature. She currently teaches in schools and continues with botanical survey work. She has run the Grass Identification in Spring course at Juniper Hall for a number of years and has also taught grass identification courses at Kindrogan and Malham Tarn Field Centres.

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