Field of Science

Lab materials getting thin

Come on spring!  It's hard to teach a plant taxonomy lab without some spring flora to work on.  Some Cornus mas and some Bradford pear finally decided to flower after a week and a half in the glasshouse. A couple of mimosoid legumes are starting to flower, and TPP missed an opportunity with a tropical caesalpinioid tree that flowered over the weekend by surprise (all at once it drops whole new twigs bearing several leaves, and flowers out of very large buds - managed to catch it once for some pictures), but some pickled Cassia and Wisteria flowers will help the students get an idea of the bean family sensu lato.  Same goes for some members of the lily family to compare to some walking iris (Dietes).  Pickled specimens are never the best, but they are better than nothing. So far it's only been snowdrops. 

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