This course will be offered every Fall semester

Woody Plants is an intensive field- and lecture-based learning experience, in which you will learn to identify 160 trees, shrub and vine species that are important in Michigan environments. You will learn about their taxonomy, distribution, habitat associations, and biogeographic history and how to identify them in their leafless winter condition. The lab component consists of weekly field trips in the Ann Arbor area, which include riparian and floodplain habitats, glacial lakes, moraines, bogs, fens and mesic forests. The lectures cover elementary aspects of plant identification, taxonomy and ecology; however, the broader themes include biogeographic history and the assembly of Michigan plant communities, both before and after major glaciations, ecological specializiation, and impacts of global warming and other anthropogenic environmental changes.