Botany lab fifteen plant seek
In spring 2024 and 2025 the final laboratory has been a weather dependent campus walkabout. During the drive into campus the thought came unbidden that what an ANR major faces after graduation is the question from friends and family, "What plant is this?" The presumption is that an agriculture major is an expert on plants. The usual twist on this is an email from a cousin in Hilo who need apwid for a local medicine treatment and wants to know if apwid can be found in Hilo. The idea of a twist on this concept flooded in on the heels of the above thought: a multilingual treasure hunt.
The premise was as follows:
You are an ANR major and once you graduate, everyone thinks you are an expert in plants. You are to determine the name of the plant in your language, find the plant on campus, and bring back a leaf or other identifying characteristic of the plant.
A Kosraean friend needs ingingkal. Find, collect, and bring back a leaf.
A Pohnpeian friend needs omp. Find, collect, and bring back a leaf.
A Chuukese friend wants a small piece of wúnen kattu. Find, collect, and bring back a piece.
A Woleaian friend wants a leaf of gil sometimes spelled keel or, on Ulithi, kel. Find, collect, and bring back a leaf.
A Yapese friends wants a leaf of flay n sabouw also sometimes referred to as sabow. Find, collect, and bring back a leaf.
An American wants a leaf of coffee. Find, collect, and bring back a coffee plant leaf.
Once you and your partner have collected the six plants, come and find me. I am probably out on campus myself.
Four handouts were made available in the laboratory. Selected relevant pages were printed from these flora. Perhaps there is another or better way to handle this. With only 30 minutes to put this laboratory together, the hard copies were the only option that came to mind. This approach worked, but in part because only eleven of the fifteen students attended this final laboratory session. The flora might be an alternative, but that would have to be updated. And the flora will not load on the Smartboard - although that would not matter for this exercise.
Amaryssa in the field. During the term the class has walked campus, but rarely in search of a particular plant. Perhaps future terms could see the class engage in more plant identification on campus. This laboratory was a reach for the students - in some ways this was more aligned with ethnobotany. But eleven of the fifteen students have either taken or are now taking ethnobotany, so this exercise is not as long a reach as the search would be for students who had not taken ethnobotany.
Mitchy, Santriko, Alex, and Ronney were first to return with the plants. They had paid attention to the plants that the class had passed by during the walks.
Lyviane of Ulithi with the rest of the leaves.
Trisden, Amaryssa, and Jenry-Thor arrived with their collection of leaves.
Harston, eminently knowledgeable in local customs, culture, and plants, chose to roll solo on this mission.
Jenry-Thor assists Lyviane and Beverly with their one missing plant - a plant not found on Woleai or Ulithi.
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