Flowering with
Kevin Cook
Sponsored by
Fort Collins Audubon Society
A class presented
in four sessions with a supporting field trip.
July 2005
This wildflower class looks at all the ambitions we have for recognizing
and knowing which wildflower is which and all the good intentions we have
of learning how to identify wildflowers then weighs them against the
myriad little behaviors that, consciously or not, sabotage every effort to
master the wildflowers. The four main objectives of this class are to
-
optimize
personal ambition to identify and know wildflowers;
-
minimize or
eliminate counter-productive behaviors that prevent identifying and
knowing wildflowers;
-
develop
personal skills to identify wildflowers with confidence and accuracy;
-
extend the
passion for wildflowers to all plants and thereby extend the passion to
a year-round interest and connection.
Thursday,
July 7 — Learning How to Identify Wildflowers
How to select and use field guides
and other valuable reference materials; how to look at a plant to see the
details vital to accurate identification; how to use botanical language
without feeling put off or left out; how to cope with English and Latin
names. Instructional family: evening-primroses.
Thursday,
July 14 — Mastering the Common Wildflowers:
Part 1
How to recognize similarities and
differences useful to the wildflower identification pursuit as illustrated
by borages, buttercups, loasas, orchids, paintbrushes, peas, penstemons,
and poppies.
Tuesday,
July 19 —
Mastering the Common
Wildflowers:
Part 2
How to cope with so many flowers
that look so much alike: the sunflowers.
Thursday,
July 21 — Developing a Personal Botany Context
How to make a personal enthusiasm
for wildflowers a year-round pursuit; how to view plant-and-animal
associations as a memory aid for learning and remembering which
wildflowers are which; how to regard plants as a collective whole in
composing landscape vegetation that can be read like a book.
Class Meeting Time and Place
