Admission requirements
BSc-courses Biodiversity 1 & 2 and Training flora are advantageous
Description
The tropics comprise the hottest hotspots of global biodiversity. They contain more than two thirds of the vascular plant species worldwide with a density 10 times higher than the European flora. Many well-known and economically important plant taxa such as bananas, cocoa, coffee, and sugar are of tropical origin.
The identification of tropical plants is a crucial aspect in conservation biology, systematic, ecological, evolutionary and ethnobotanical research. Because of the high species diversity, the poor exploration of many tropical regions, and the unavailability of regional floras and identification tools, identification is often problematic.
The botanical diversity of the tropics is being explored and documented by the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in international projects such as Flora Malesiana and Flora of the Guianas, involving numerous experts with an in-depth knowledge of the plants and habitats of the tropics. One of the aims of Naturalis Biodiversity Center and Hortus botanicus Leiden is the knowledge transfer of plant diversity. This course has been set up to provide an overview of the most commonly encountered tropical plant families, and the knowledge and tools needed for their identification.
Specialists working at Naturalis and botanical gardens in Amsterdam, Leiden and Utrecht will give the participants an overview of the most commonly encountered tropical plant families, including their key features, characteristic genera, and ecological and economic importance. General introductions to plant morphology, identification tools, plant collection techniques, tropical vegetation types, biogeography and ethnobotanical research will be given.
The course will mainly be housed in the Leiden Hortus botanicus.
Course objectives
After completion of this course, students can:
Recognize and identify the most common tropical plant families.
Apply descriptive plant terminology when identifying plant families.
Recognize and name the function of the various plant organs.
Generate an overview of the characters or combinations of characters needed to identify the tropical plant families.
Apply different identification tools (dichotomous and multi-access keys).
Evaluate various collection techniques for plant material (e.g. suitability of different methods).
Outline and exemplify the ecological and economic importance of tropical plant taxa and their biogeography.
Timetable
Details will be communicated on Brightspace, participants also receive the course schedule of the course via email.
In MyTimetable, you can find all course and programme schedules, allowing you to create your personal timetable. Activities for which you have enrolled via MyStudyMap will automatically appear in your timetable.
Additionally, you can easily link MyTimetable to a calendar app on your phone, and schedule changes will be automatically updated in your calendar. You can also choose to receive email notifications about schedule changes. You can enable notifications in Settings after logging in.
Questions? Watch the video, read the instructions, or contact the ISSC helpdesk.
Note: Joint Degree students from Leiden/Delft need to combine information from both the Leiden and Delft MyTimetables to see a complete schedule. This video explains how to do it.
Mode of instruction
Through lectures, extensive hands-on practicals and excursions to various botanical institutions in the Netherlands, the participants will learn to identify more than 40 tropical plant families based on generative (flower and fruit) and vegetative (leaf and bark) characters. The participants will learn to use both identification keys in traditional Floras and interactive on-line keys. During the practical the participants will be able to examine living, herbarium and alcohol preserved material, and during excursions to the tropical greenhouses of botanical gardens in Amsterdam, Leiden, Utrecht and Burgers' Bush special attention will be paid to collection techniques, biogeography and field characteristics.
Assessment method
Examination: Several open questions (max. 10; 40% of result) to test knowledge and 30 plant families that have to be identified (60% of result) from dried or fresh material, thereby mentioning the characters on which the identification is based.
Inspection and feedback on the examinations:
After the examination a course evaluation, including attention to the answers and discussion of the exam, will be given, followed by a handout of certificates to those with sufficient marks. Re-examination will be on individual basis and mainly orally (identification) next to the written open questions; preferably as soon as possible after the course.
Minimum grade:
Courses require a minimum, unrounded 5.5 grade to complete.
If a course has 2 or more written partial exams, the minimum grade only applies to the weighted average of the exams.
For partial grades from components other than exams (e.g. practicals, seminars, writing assignments), the bottom grade does apply to the individual components.
Please refer to the Student Charter for an overview of regulations.
Reading list
Compulsory book: Utteridge & Bramley, the Kew Tropical plant families identification handbook (2014), which can be bought with a discount during the course.
Registration
As a student, you are responsible for enrolling on time through MyStudyMap.
In this short video, you can see step-by-step how to enrol for courses in MyStudyMap.
Extensive information about the operation of MyStudyMap can be found here.
There are two enrolment periods per year:
Enrolment for the fall opens in July
Enrolment for the spring opens in December
See this page for more information about deadlines and enrolling for courses and exams.
Note:
It is mandatory to enrol for all activities of a course that you are going to follow.
Your enrolment is only complete when you submit your course planning in the ‘Ready for enrolment’ tab by clicking ‘Send’.
Not being enrolled for an exam/resit means that you are not allowed to participate in the exam/resit.
Exchange and Study Abroad students, please see the Prospective students website for more information on how to apply.
Contact
Coordinator: Sylvia Mota de Oliveira
Email: sylvia.motadeoliveira@naturalis.nl
Remarks
It is important to register in time, because there is a maximum of 15 students from Leiden University. Students from other Dutch universities, international students and staff of the botanical gardens will compete for the remaining 15 positions.
The course will mainly be housed in the Leiden Hortus botanicus.
Software
Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, the Faculty of Science will use the software distribution platform Academic Software. Through this platform, you can access the software needed for specific courses in your studies. For some software, your laptop must meet certain system requirements, which will be specified with the software. It is important to install the software before the start of the course. More information about the laptop requirements can be found on the student website.