Study Guide for BBG Plant ID Class

Clerodendrum bungei Steud., Rose Glory Bower
Clerodendrum bungei

This Wednesday I take the final for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Herbaceous Landscape Plant Identification class. [Spelling counts! So please let me know of any typos.] Thursday, I start Urban Garden Maintenance, the last of the eight classes I need for my Certificate in Urban Horticulture from BBG. I started the program in Winter 2008. This is the home stretch; I can’t believe I’m almost done with it.

Unlike the “woodies” class, I already knew most of the plants introduced in the class over the past five weeks. Either I’ve grown them myself sometime over my 30 years of gardening in NYC, or I’ve researched and studied them. However, there have been several, such as the interesting Clerodendrum above, which I’ve never even heard of, or never knew the names of.

This post is the index to my photographic study guide. Plant names are listed by week, in alphabetical order by botanical name within each week. Botanical names are given, corrected for typos, as they were introduced in the class; that’s what we’ll be tested on for the final this Wednesday evening. Plant names are linked to my Flickr Set, where I have one. You can also browse my Flickr Collection for this class, where all the plants are listed by botanical name.

Week 1, 2009.07.22

Callirhoe involucrata, Purple Poppy-Mallow
Callirhoe involucrata, Poppy Mallow

Observed:

Omitted (these will not be included on the final):

  • Aquilegia canadensis, Columbine. This grows as a Spring ephemeral in our region; none were available to observe at this late date.
  • Geranium macrorrhizum, Bigroot Geranium. Omitted primarily for time constraints; also, it was out of bloom by this time of the year. Too bad, since it’s a handsome plant, and there are lots of them around the grounds of BBG.

Week 2, 2009-07-29

We got 11 plants this week to make up for being two short the previous week.

Week 3, 2009-08-05

Week 4, 2009-08-12

This was the only themed week of the class, consisting solely of grasses, ferns and fern allies.

Pennisetum alopecuroides, Fountain Grass
Pennisetum alopecuroides, Fountain Grass

Week 5, 2009-08-19

The last class before the in-class final.

Angelica gigas, Purple Angelica
Angelica gigas

7 thoughts on “Study Guide for BBG Plant ID Class

  1. When I was growing up our mother taught us all of the perennial flowers by their Latin names so I am familiar with many. Don't know so many of the local native plants – there are several here that I don't know.
    Your course sounds very interesting – good luck tonight.
    Thanks for the information.

  2. peace: Still waiting to hear how I did on the final. I know I got a couple things wrong, but I expect a score in the 90s.

    I've got lots more info on native plants elsewhere on the blog. Most of the plants native here have ranges that include Western New York.

    Dee: Thanks. And thank you.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *