Hello! I’m Kris Hufford and I teach ecology. I’d like to grow my skills in plant ID and I’m excited to take Biol F195 this summer. I live in Wyoming and had planned to travel to Quebec and several other places north this year. Sadly, all those travel plans are now on hold because of the virus. I took a look at USDA Plants online and was happy to see there are many species that grow in both Wyoming and Alaska. I live near the Medicine Bow National Forest and a lot of plants are in bloom right now, so this class has perfect timing.
Luckily, I can borrow a stereoscope like this one from work…and I have a macro lens for my phone on order.
Welcome Kris! I hope you will find this an inspiring class to learn more about plant ID and perhaps glean something from our approach to teaching an online flora class for your own teaching. Yes, there are some common plants and most of the families should be similar although some of the Ericaceae might be passed in your area, but maybe some you can find at higher elevations. You are set with the dissecting miscroscope. The macrolens should be good, but most phones have very powerful cameras already.