Course details
Tutors
Aims
This course aims to:
- enable you to recognise the main parts of a plant (stem, leaves, flowers), appreciate the wide range of forms that these parts can take across species, and how differences in these body parts influence and are influenced by a plant’s ecology and physiology
- appreciate the central role of plants in human well-being, from direct provisioning services like food and medicine, to ecosystem services like climate regulation
- increase your ability to identify plants to species, genus and family, to increase your awareness the diversity of plants worldwide, and the diversity within your local ecosystems
Course content
Plants are the foundation of terrestrial ecosystems and as such they have shaped our world and created the conditions for other species to thrive, including people. By taking a comparative approach between species, you will appreciate how plants’ physical form allows them to thrive in their environments. Plants’ physical form also allows us to identify species and you will improve your familiarity with plants, putting scientific and common names to species and spotting shared patterns between genera and plant families. You will become familiar with the major groups of land plant and their defining characteristics, helping you to explain how a moss can survive under a tree, why broadleaved trees don’t grow at high latitudes and how grazing animals create and maintain grassy ecosystems. The physiology of plants – how they grow, develop, and respond to their environment – will help you to interpret big geographic patterns, like why trees don’t occur at high altitudes, why trees have a maximum height, and how plants can survive in a desert. Most human cultures depend intimately on plant species for their well-being, for example 40% of current medicines used by the UK’s national health service are derived directly from plants. You will explore the fundamental role plants play in maintaining earth’s systems and appreciate how plants can be both vulnerable to climate change as well as part of the solution.
What to expect on this course
We will use specimens of common British plant species to increase your familiarity with plants. We will take a comparative approach between species, genera and families to both help with plant identification, and appreciate how plants have been shaped by their environments and create habitats for other species. Alongside some prompt materials shared in lecture format, you can expect group discussions, readings, quizzes and class activities to enhance peer-to-peer knowledge-sharing and help you engage critically with new material.
Course sessions
Plant Morphology: In this session we will use plant specimens to compare the main external features of different species: their roots, stems, leaves and flowers.
Plant Diversity: This session introduces the major groups of land plant and their defining characteristics, as well as plant diversity worldwide.
Plant Physiology: This session covers the essentials of how plants function, especially photosynthesis and water transport.
Plant Ecology: How plants interact with other living organisms and their non-living environment to define and create habitats for other species.
- Plants & People: How plants provide people with food, medicine, materials and culture, as well as ecosystem services like climate regulation.
Learning outcomes
As a result of the course, you will gain a greater understanding of the subject and you should be able to:
- recognise the main parts of a plant and interpret their appearance in terms of plant evolution and ecology
- describe the central role of plants in human life
- identify some plants to species, genus or family level
Required reading
There is no required reading for this course. See Course materials for supplementary reading once registered.