Natural History of the Southwest Spring 2007

Plant Collection: 

•         Get a spiral notebook and tape.

•         Collect 30 native plants.  Go to a natural area preferably out of the city (there are many more non-native plants in the city).  You might take a short hike at or near a natural area, such as the road to Mt. Lemmon or Tucson Mt. Park (be careful about places that are posted for no plant collection).  Don’t go to a nursery or buy your plants.

•         Try to get good representative plant parts: a leaf, or twig with leaves, flowers if available.

•         Tape it to a page of the notebook (one plant per page).

•         Identify your plant.  Either ask us or go to the herbarium (Herring Hall, South of Old Main), contact person: Phil Jenkins

•        Write a paragraph giving the date you collected your plant and where. Write it out by hand (no typing)!

•         Look it up on the internet or library and provide some information about your plant (maybe, the color of flowers, when it flowers, who pollinates it.  Interesting notes about where it is found or special characteristics). Again write it out by hand (we don't want people cutting and pasting directly from source material).

•         For best results do a reality check with the TA before getting too far along in your project to make sure your on the right track.

•         To get a good grade they have to be native, nicely presented and wiith an interesting accurate paragraph.