SYSTEMATIC BOTANY
ECOL/PLS 472/572
SYLLABUS
Spring 2006
Last Updated: September 30, 2005
Lecture: MW 9:00 AM Bio W 237
Lab: MW 10:00 AM - 12:50 PM Koffler 441
1. Instructor’s name and contact information:
Dr. Steven P. McLaughlin
Professor, Arid Lands Studies
Curator, Herbarium (ARIZ)
Offices: Herring Hall 103 A, 621-7243
Arid Lands 107A, 621-8577
Natural Products Center (Lab), 741-1691
Email: spmcl@ag.arizona.edu
Homepage: http://ag.arizona.edu/~spmcl/mclaughlin.html
Assisting Staff:
Philip Jenkins, Collection Manager, Herbarium (Herring 105, 621-7243)
Edward Gilbert, Database Manager, Herbarium (Herring 103A, 621-7243)
Teaching Assistants:
TBA
2. Office hours or a statement of an open-door policy:
Dr. McLaughlin, M-W 2:00 - 3:00 PM, Herring 103A. Other times and places by appointment.
3. Overall course objectives and expected learning outcomes:
This course will emphasize the classification and identification of vascular plants, with a focus on the flowering plants. Lectures and laboratories will concentrate on morphological features, both vegetative and reproductive, that characterize a representative sample of vascular plant families, with emphasis on the most common families in the flora of western North America. Systems and principles of classification will also be covered. Students are expected to: (1) interpret and describe morphological features of both fresh and dry specimens; (2) learn how to use dichotomous keys to identify plant specimens to family, genus, and species; (3) be able to identify and distinguish representatives of 93 selected plant families; and (4) learn to collect, identify, and prepare specimens of plants.
4. Grade policies:
Regular grades are awarded for this course: A B C D E. Grades for ECOL/PLS 472 will be based on exams, lab practicals, and a plant collection as follows:
Midterm: 50 points TBA
First Lab Practical: 50 points TBA
Final: 50 points May 10, 2006 Bio W 237 8:00 AM
Second Lab Practical: 50 points May 3, 2006, Koffler 441, 11:00 AM
Plant Collection: 50 points
Students enrolled in ECOL/PLS 572 will have an additional independent project worth another 50 points. Minimum cutoffs for grades will be:
A: 90%
B: 80%
C: 70%
D: 60%
5. Absence policies:
Students are expected to attend all regularly scheduled lectures, laboratory meetings, and field trips; students are responsible for any changes in assignments or modification of assignments announced during regularly scheduled class hours.
In accordance with University of Arizona policies: “All holidays or special events observed by organized religions will be honored for those students who show affiliation with that particular religion. Absences pre-approved by the UA Dean of Students (or Dean’s designee) will be honored.:
6. List of Required Texts:
The following text is required for all students:
Judd, W. S., Campbell, C. S., Kellogg, E. A., Stevens, P. F., and Donoghue, M. J. 2002. Plant systematics: a phylogenetic approach. Second Edition. Sinauer. ISBN: 0-87893-403-0.
In addition, students will need a copy (provided) of the following for the laboratory work and plant collection:
Kearney, T. H., Peebles, R. H., and collaborators. 1960. Arizona flora. Second Edition. University of California Press.
Copies of the latter can be checked out from the Herbarium, and must be returned at the end of the course. Students not returning checked out materials will receive an “I”.
7. Number of required examinations and papers:
Students in both 472 and 572 will take a midterm exam, final exam, and two laboratory practicals. In addition, students in 572 are required to prepare a paper describing the results of an independent literature review project.
8. Policies regarding expected classroom behavior:
Students are expected to interact with their instructors and classmates in a respectful and civil manner at all times. Loud and extended conversations among students, either in lecture or lab, are distracting to other students and interfere with classroom instruction. Cell phones and pagers must be turned off at all times.
9. Policies against plagiarism, etc., within Student Code of Academic Integrity:
see: http://studpubs.web.arizona.edu/policies/cacaint.htm
10. Policies against threatening behavior by students:
see: http://policy.web.arizona.edu/~policy/threaten.shtml
11. Required extra-curricular activities:
a. Plant collection.
Each student will be required to make a collection of 30 pressed, dried, and labeled plant specimens. The collection must include:
a. At least 5 monocots.
b. At least 10 different families.
c. No more than 3 species from any one family.
There will be two field trips during which students can make collections. Budget, dates and destinations for field trips have not been finalized. [Tentative dates are March 4-5, and April 1]. Details of plant collection and label preparation will be covered in class. Plant presses will be checked out to students. Collections should be turned in with a cover sheet listing the identifications of all specimens. All collections will become the property of the Herbarium; presses must be returned at the end of the semester. Collections should be turned into the Herbarium (Herring Hall 103a) no later than Friday, May 5, 2006.
b. Project for 572 students.
In Arizona Flora, other floras and manuals published prior to ca. 1980, and in many herbaria (including ARIZ), vascular plant families are arranged according to the system of classification of Adolf Engler and his coworkers (Engler & Prantl, Engler & Diels). This was a putatively “phylogenetic” system at the time of its creation. In the last two decades of the 20th Century, several other systems were published, based on revised ideas of primitive and advanced morphological characteristics, and new information on many additional characters. The most widely discussed and adopted of these systems were those of Armen Takhtajan, Arthur Cronquist, and Robert Thorne. These three systems were published at about the same time as other systematists began using cladistic analyses of molecular data. Judd et al. (1999, 2002) is the first comprehensive plant systematics textbook to be based on advances in molecular systematics and phylogenetic analyses.
The graduate student (ECOL/PLS 572) project involves (1) selecting an order as circumscribed by Engler (in consultation with the instructor); (2) describing the morphological basis for Engler’s circumscription, i.e., what morphological features do the families placed in that order share; (3) providing a brief description of the families comprising that order, including their sizes and distributions, (4) showing how those families were placed in a more recent treatment (Takhtajan, Cronquist, or Thorne); and (5) discussing how those families are now classified in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II system.
Students will present their work as a written report, and give a brief oral presentation. The report must be documented; literature citations should follow the format used in current issues of Systematic Botany.
Incomplete synopses of Cronquist’s system and Thorne’s system are included on the CD accompanying your text. A complete synopsis of the APG system can be found in Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2003), and on the web (www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/APweb/welcome.html). A synopsis of the Engler system (Engler and Diels, 1936) will be provided; a discussion of this system can be found in Lawrence (1951). Complete synopses of the systems of Takhtajan, Cronquist, and Thorne will also be provided.
Written papers are due on May 5, 2006. They can be turned into the instructor on that date at the Herbarium (Herring Hall 103a).
12. Special materials required for class:
It is strongly recommended that all students purchase a good quality hand lens (loupe) for use in the lab and the field. These can usually be found at jewelry supply stores. Magnifications of 7X to 10X are best; higher magnifications have a field of view and depth of focus that are too narrow. Other useful tools for the laboratory include a small ruler scaled in mm, forceps, and razor blades.
13. Notification of potentially offensive course content:
Students who find any material presented in this course to be offensive should advise instructors of the specific content deemed offensive.
14. Students registered with the Disability Resource Center:
Students who are registered with the Disability Resource Center must submit appropriate documentation to the instructor if they are requesting reasonable accommodations. See: http://drc.arizona.edu/instructor/syllabus-statement.shtml
15. The information contained in this course syllabus, other than grade and absence policies, may be subject to change with reasonable advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.
References:
ANGIOSPERM PHYLOGENY GROUP. 2003. An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG II. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 141: 399-436.
CRONQUIST, A. 1988. The evolution and classification of flowering plants. 2nd Edition. New York: New York Botanical Garden.
ENGLER, A, and L. DIELS. 1936. Syllabus der pflanzenfamilien. Aufl. 11. Berlin: Gebrüder Borntraeger.
LAWRENCE, G. H. M. 1951. Taxonomy of vascular plants. New York: The MacMillan Company.
TAKHTAJAN, A. L. 1969. Flowering Plants: Origin and Dispersal. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.
TAKHTAJAN, A. L. 1997. Diversity and classification of flowering plants. New York: Columbia University Press.
THORNE, R. F. 1992. Classification and geography of the flowering plants. Botanical Review 58: 225-348.