MMU Using a Flora

Last weekend I attended the second of six courses working towards the MMU Certificate in Biological Recording.  Entitled 'Using a Flora' it aimed to give us the tools to identify any plant in the UK, armed with a knowledge of plant anatomy and terminology and using the extensive and (dare I say it) over-complicated floral key written by Stace.

Our tutor Mark was incredibly knowledgeable and patient, and the facilities at the field studies centre at Preston Montford was comfortable and well-catered. The other students were all really friendly and we got on well as a group. This all boded well for an enjoyable course.

Days were long with twelve hours tuition - you certainly get your money's worth on an FSC course!  We typically spent the morning in the lab having lectures and looking at/dissecting various plant specimens. In the afternoons, we had a field trip, visiting three very different but beautiful sites. After dinner, there was an evening session which summarised the day's work and introduced other aspects of botany.

The most difficult part of the course was learning the terminology. The floral key that we used could almost be written in a foreign language. I am sure it would be more accessible to a wider audience, and thus increase an interest in botany, if simpler language were used.  For example, why say 'glabrous' when 'hairless' would do equally well? There also seemed to be more than one word for the same thing!

Despite the language barrier, we all learnt lots, focusing on identifying the top twenty families in the UK. Some of the work was fiddly - dissecting a flower is not so bad in the lab, but virtually impossible in the field when there is a breeze blowing! It is also difficult to distinguish many of the parts of a flower - for example the number of ovules in an ovary - if the flower is very small in the first place. 

Our first field trip was to Colemere, a country park close by.  A relic glacial lake, it has hay meadows and is surrounded by mature woodland. After spending some time in the meadow discussing various species, we took the circular walk through the woods to look at a rare lily on the lake.

The second trip took us to Snailbeach, an old mining area I believe, with some wonderful dry grassland plants. We were lucky enough to see lizards basking on some of the tumbled down walls, but they were too elusive to be photographed.

The third day took us to Llanymynech quarry on the Welsh border, a nature reserve managed by Shropshire Wildlife Trust.  At the bottom of the quarry was a heat trap, and we spent some time keying out plants and admiring the blooms of orchid. We then moved up to the top of the site where there were amazing views of the surrounding countryside.

On the final evening, we had a session on voucher and herbarium specimens. It is part of our assigment to present five good quality herbarium specimens alongside a dichotomous key that we create for ten species.

On the last day, we had a practical test to do. This was open book but in exam conditions. We had ten questions to complete in an hour and a half, which sounds quite easy.  When it took me the first hour to complete three questions, I inevitably went into panic mode. The test wasn't that hard, but I did start stressing when I realised I wouldn't have enough time to complete it and consequently I made some silly mistakes. For a couple of species I discarded the species name I had keyed out to and went for a more familiar one instead ... I should have had faith!  We went over the answers at the end so I am confident I have passed but not as well as I had hoped - I will have to wait until I get the official result to see the true outcome.  It's all a learning experience and in real life I won't be limited to time and be in such false conditions. I'm sure I will get faster with time and practice.

As well as looking at the plants, there was the chance to get involved in some of the other activities at the field centre. I got up early one morning and helped to retrieve the mammal and moth traps.  My next MMU module is on land mammals, so I thought this would give me an insight to what may be involved.  Accompanied by a member of staff from the centre, I retrieved twenty Longworth traps from around the site. Those sited along the A5 embankment were all empty, but we had more luck with those situated around the pond.  We caught several field mice, a bank vole and a field vole. These were all sexed and weighed, then released back into the undergrowth.  The results are submitted to the Mammal Society every week.

The contents of the moth trap were more exciting than when I visited the field centre a few months ago, the warmer weather obviously more conducive to different species.  Some of the more exotic looking species included Elephant Hawk Moth and Garden Tiger. We also caught some Buff-Tips, that look amazingly like a birch twig!  There was a lot of activity around the pond too, with damselflies mating and laying eggs on the vegation.

Overall, this was an very enjoyable and productive five days, and I am sure I will be able to use much of what I have learnt in my future career.