Do you ever wonder about those dead “weeds,” bare trees, shrubs, and vines you see when you are out and about in the winter? Would you like to hone your winter plant identification skills while enjoying the outdoors on snowshoes? Even when leaves and flowers are gone, or all that remains is a dried stalk, we can look at habitat, overall shape, branching patterns, twigs, buds, bark, and remains of fruits or seeds to learn to recognize common trees, shrubs, and many other plants of the Upper Valley.
During this four-week class, we will find and examine as many different plants as we can and practice using winter keys to identify them. Weather permitting, part or all of each class will be a field trip. Field trips will be on easy terrain at a botanist’s pace (=slow!), but we may do some bushwhacking. The course syllabus will provide field trip information and meeting points.