Session 2

Plant Biodiversity

Get a Head Start on Your College-Level Biology Studies

Professor Snape asks Harry Potter, “What’s the difference between monk’s hood and wolf bane?”  Harry didn’t know the answer, but you will know it and more after completing this program. Plants are all around us, adding beauty to our lives and food and oxygen to our bodies. Look at any picture from the planet Mars—that’s what a world without plants is like. To most people, plants are merely a green background, but this program will show you just how complex, diverse and beautiful they really are. Pacific's Stockton Campus provides a perfect laboratory in which to learn about plant structure and diversity.

Students in this program learn about plants from a faculty member with over 35 years of experience in botany (the study of plants). They gain knowledge about how plants are structured, how they function and about the diversity and relationships of plants, and learn about museum collections, online databases and mapping tools. On-campus field trips take place throughout the program.

Curriculum

Students learn basic terminology related to plant structure and how patterns of structure define plant families. With that knowledge, students identify plants during several campus plant walks, as well as by using a dichotomous key. Emphasis is placed on the economic and cultural importance of many common species of plants. Several important plant communities native to California, which are defined by plant diversity and soil types, are introduced.

After learning basic plant structure and terminology, students attend several campus field trips where they apply the knowledge they have gained. Common families, such as the Rose, Cypress, Pine, Olive, Barberry, and Dogbane families, are covered. In the classroom, students identify plant families and species by examining plant structures using a dissecting microscope. Students prepare museum specimens by pressing and drying fresh plant specimens and then gluing them to archival paper. The program concludes in presentations on the “pet plants” of their individual choice.

Cosmos with sunflower
Planned Topics
  • Learn plant structure and terminology
  • Understand basic plant diversity in the form of plant families
  • Take numerous campus field trips to practice and apply knowledge
  • Use a dissecting microscope to dissect flowers and determine patterns of structure, leading to identification
  • Understand several common California native plant communities, especially their common species and soil types
  • Learn how a plant museum works and prepare a museum specimen
  • Understand how museum specimens are cataloged on an online database
  • Understand the basics of mapping plant specimens and their geographic distribution
  • Select a “pet plant” and do research to prepare and deliver a presentation
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Mark Brunell
Faculty Lead
Mark Brunell

Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, College of the Pacific

PhD, University of California, Riverside, 1996

Dr. Brunell has been a botanist for over 35 years and has worked as a professor biology in three states.  He started at Pacific in 2002.  He is past-president of the California Botanical Society and past-president of the Alameda County Master Gardeners program.  His research area is the taxonomy of native plants, especially the genus Monardella, for which he authored the treatments for the Jepson Manual (2nd edition) and the Flora of North America.  He has taught the course “California Flora” at Pacific for 22 years.

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