Seedless vascular plants

 Tuesday I introduced seedless vascular plants in a traditional lecture format.

This replaces student presentations that were assessed as not being all that effective or meaningful. In some cases students fell back on reading from online websites without any comprehension of what they were speaking about. With the shift to the focus on ethnobotanical use presentations, the botanic science presentations were dropped post-pandemic. Cyanobacteria has been erased already from the left side of the board.

Life cycles were simplified, terminology was defined.

The white board presentation was followed by a slide show presentation of some of the primitive plants and cyanobacteria.

Thursday was the field walk day.

I began just ahead of class by walking to the moss on the east end of campus. I discovered that the macro camera on the Moto G60 is not a fixed focus macro but capable of autofocus. The images generated were unreal. 

The operculums are clearly visible in this photo. 

I thought the class might have to walk all the way to the half moon drive gate to access the ferns across the road, but the generator gate was secured by only a piece of tie wire. Being able to move through this gate will be valuable in future terms and is something I will need to sort out with maintenance.

Sori on Lemmaphylum accedens. The macro again.

Microsorum scolopendria.

On the way to the Lycopodiella cernua and Dicranopteris linearis the class got to see Nostoc commune.

The class entered at the east half moon drive gate and then walked the Pterocarpus indicus line to the gym. Davallia pectinata was seen on this walk but not Psilotum nudum. Haploteris elongata was also found on one tree in this line. So the line was a fruitful line - except that the plants being examined produce no fruit.

The class ended in Haruki with Sphaerostephanos maemonensis and Selaginella, along with an introduction to the Japanese cemetery.