Beginner’s Guide to Plant Idenfication

Do you love plants, but don’t know how to identify them and are terrified of wildflower identification guides? If so, this short course is for you.

We will work through ways of increasing your confidence, and, most importantly, help you become better at identifying wild plants. This course combines the use of classroom-led learning and outside learning opportunities in the garden to give beginner botanists the skills and confidence to identify plants using keys and field guides.

We’ll explore:

• The structure and morphology of plants
• How to use taxonomic keys and field guides
• How to identify common plant species and families

This event is subsidised thanks to a grant from the John Swire 1989 Charitable Trust.

Tutor bio:

Dr Mark Spencer

Dr Mark Spencer’s life-long passion for plants began in his childhood wandering the Lizard peninsula, Cornwall and the Northamptonshire countryside. He studied Horticulture at Kew Gardens, after which he did a botany degree and a PhD in mycology. Mark was a senior curator at the Natural History Museum, where he worked for 12 years. His botanical interests are wide-ranging but currently are particularly focused on the flora of London (he is the Botanical Society of the British Isles vice-county recorder for Middlesex and the Vascular Plant Recorder for the London Natural History Society). Mark is an active fellow of the Linnean Society of London where he is honorary botany curator of their globally important collections.