NS Workshop: Botanical Diversity – From Algae to Angiosperms

This course will focus on a survey of basic information of the major groups of microscopic algae (plant ancestors) mosses, ferns, conifers and flowering plants with a focus on morphology, reproduction and dispersal, and evolutionary relationships. How are their “bodies” put together?  How do they develop and reproduce?  How did they evolve and how are they related?  What makes them important in the ecological landscape? The emphasis will be on life cycles and how similarities and differences will reveal the phylogenies of these organisms.  Lectures will be interspersed with forays into field to find and identify organisms discussed in the classroom.