BIOL 330/630 -- Plant Systematics

Family Presentations

Each student will research a specific plant family (or group of small families) in order to make an oral presentation in Plant Systematics. These presentations should be 20-25 minutes in length and prepared as PowerPoint presentations. Illustrations such as line drawings and photographs should be used to enhance your message.

These presentations will be scheduled to coincide with our systematic coverage of plant families in the lab. The dates of our indoor labs and the plant groups covered are in the syllabus. However, presentations will be distributed as much as possible by having no more than two presentations during a given lab meeting.

For ideas on focal families, review the species lists for families seen at any of our field sites. In addition, your textbook and field guides will be good beginning points. The Bertrand Library owns a number of excellent reference sources (e.g., works of Cronquist, Lawrence, Takhtadzhian) as does our Manning Herbarium (e.g., Flora of North America). As always, the original taxonomic literature (use electronic database searches to identify appropriate information) and the WWW will provide useful information.

Information of interest includes but is not limited to (your presentation does NOT have to follow the order below):

(1) Family description including growth forms, floral morphology, breeding system (e.g., monecy, dioecy), fruit dispersal modes, specialized structures, unique secondary chemistry, -- basically what characteristics distinguish this family from other groups?

(2) Distribution of the family on a worldwide basis as well as specific adaptations to particular habitats.

(3) Phylogenetic placement of family within plant evolutionary trees. To which families and orders is this focal group related to?

(4) Economic importance if any -- most families have agriculturally important members or species that are used as ornamentals.

(5) Weedy or aggressive members -- many families have members that when introduced to non-native lands become noxious weeds. Do alien members of this plant group represent a serious threat to biodiversity?

Library Resources for Plant Family Information