Sedges of the Blue Ridge: May 25 – May 29

Dr. Dwayne Estes, Austin Peay University

This is an advanced class for students or professionals with solid prior experience with plant identification, plant terminology, and use of dichotomous keys. The class focuses on the difficult and taxonomically complex genus Carex, which includes for our region about 200 species. Carex is an important genus in almost all terrestrial plant communities. Some forests or wetlands may have more than 20 species present in a single site. The species include many look-alikes and the high number of species coupled with reliance on characters that often need identification to see makes Carex one of the more difficult groups of plants to identify in the region. For this class, we will focus on the species of the greater Southern Appalachian region. The genus will be broken down into 40+ sections and students will become familiar with the characters of each section. Each student will be given a minimum of 75 freshly collected Carex species to use in class and to make a reference herbarium set if desired. This will be supplemented with additional observations of species in the field and laboratory, using living and preserved herbarium material.

Prerequisites: field botany, plant taxonomy, or permission of instructor.

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