The Plant Key (to happiness) Imagine you are driving along the plant key highway with your twig, trying to take it home (to its genus and species). You come upon a series of forks in the road and at each fork, you are confronted with a choice -  you must pick the one that you believe best describes your twig. Not all of these decisions will be easy, and if you are not sure about a decision, keep that intersection in mind as you continue on. Later, if your twig is yellow, and you must choose between green or red, you might go back to the questionable fork, and try the other route. Or, as Tom describes it, if you want to be heading from New Haven to New York, and after a questionable decision you see a sign that says "Providence, 10 miles", an alarm bell should go off!

Winter vs. Summer This is a winter identification class, so we are going to be using a winter key. At the very first fork in the plant key road, we choose "Plants with leaves absent." As you should already know, deciduous plants (those that lose their leaves in winter) look quite different in winter compared to summer. But, believe it or not, you can still tell them apart looking at their overall size, shape and form, their bark, and by examining the twigs. The twig specifically refers to that portion of the tree branch that has grown since the previous year, from the bud at the end, to the first set of horizontal bud scale scars below (Click here to check it out!). Along the twig you will see leaf scars where last summer's leaves were attached. These always have a lateral bud (also termed axillary bud) above them and the careful observer will note clusters of vascular bundle scars within the leaf scar. These will prove to be important for our key. We are starting to throw a lot of new words at you, so if you still have some room in your brain, let's explain them a little better...

On to Lecture 3: More Plant Vocabulary, and other last words before you are on your own!