WEEK 2: DENDROLOGY (trees) WEB PAGE ASSIGNMENT
Due Friday August 30 (credit 20 pts.)

Tree Assignment Content Guidelines: For context and inspiration, read this article in a recent New York Times (LINK). Cite and expand upon the points that Popkin makes in your tree page.

This week we will apply and extend the tree identification skills that we learned last week. Go out into the world and discover 8 wild (not cultivated) broad-leaved (not conifer) trees. Identify them to species using your Peterson’s Field Guide to Trees and Shrubs. At least half of them must belong to different genera than the 8 we learned in class. Photograph your 8 trees close enough up (close up enough?) (up close enough??) (up with enough closeness???) to see the features that allow it to be recognized for what it is. Provide two photos of each tree –one showing the overall shape and form, and one showing leaf details. To acheive further fame and glory, include some pictures of the bark or the fruit, if present.

Provide the following information about each tree:

- common and scientific names, the latter written properly in terms of capitalization and italics.
- a written description of the pertinent identification features: leaf arrangement, complexity, and other traits that, taken together, distinguish that particular species.
- where you saw the tree, both the site locations and the habitat (the type of environment, i.e., swamp forest), and any impressions you had of thr tree and the setting. What was it like to meet this tree?
- for each tree, provide TWO interesting statements about the tree’s human or natural ecology that you hadn’t known before, from the following sources.
  —ONE of the the facts needs to come from your field guide, and be cited (copy/paste) as such (Petrides, George A. 1972, Trees and Shrubs of Northeast and North Central US and Southeast and South Central Canada (Peterson Field Guide). Houghton Miflin, 428 pp.).
  —ANOTHER of the facts should be from a reliable and interesting internet source and must be cited, both by site name and hyperlink. Herer are four recommendations, properly cited:
  1. Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Native Plant Information Network (ACSA2)
  2. Native American Ethnobotany: A Database of Foods, Drugs, Dyes and Fibers of Native American Peoples, Derived from Plants.
  3. Minnesota Wildflowers
  4. Illinois Wildflowers
- Do please have fun with this; be creative, and be sure to compare your experiences with the ones recounted by Gabriel Popkin in the “Tree Blindness” article you read.

Some exemplary web sites from past classes are the following. Check out their TREES pages for inspiration and format guidance.

From the Archives: Examples of Really Good Student Web Sites

Let’s Set Up Web Sites
(pages not posts; full width, no sidebars)

Hi ho Botanists! In class on Wednesday you all were assigned a name that you will use as the name (web address) of your new u.osu.edu web site. For example, Lizzy’s site is https://u.osu.edu/lizzyohioplants/. Follow the instructions in the video below, being sure to adhere to the following principles:

Make “PAGES” not posts. Be sure to delete the sample page and the sample post that the system starts you out with, so as to not have a cluttered menu.
Use the “customize” function to add a header image.
Scroll down to “Template” and select “Full Width No Sidebars.”
Introduce yourself yourself by reviewing the main points on the “coat of arms” you made in class. The coats are shown below and you can right-click and save yours onto your computer, then upload it onto your site to enhance your introduction. (On this page, these function as links to your web sites.) Tell the world why you are interested in plants, and what you hope to accomplish this semester, and lifelong-wise, with respect to our green friends (and mycoheterotrophic non-green ones too).
For the time being, skip (omit) the “Jetpack” plugin install. That faciliates very nice photo galleries, but we may not need them.

Have fun with this!