Sedge Identification Skills for Botanists and Naturalists

Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center, Petersburg PA
June 14, 2013

This workshop instructed participants in the skills needed to correctly identify the members of the sedge family (Cyperaceae) to species. The focus was on identification within the genus Carex but also covered distinguishing characteristics of the other Cyperaceae genera in the Pennsylvania flora. The day included a mix of indoor and outdoor activities including visits to nearby sedge habitats.

Workshop instructors

Timothy A. Block, Ph.D. Dr. Timothy A. Block was appointed the John J. Willaman Chair of Botany at the University of Pennsylvania’s Morris Arboretum in 2009 after having served as Director of Botany since 2001. He has been affiliated with the Morris Arboretum for more than 16 years and holds appointments as Adjunct Professor in the Biology Department at Penn, Research Associate at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and Expert in Botany for the Poison Control Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He is co-author of The Plants of Pennsylvania: An Illustrated Manual published in 2000 with the second edition published in 2007, Trees of Pennsylvania: A Complete Reference Guide published in 2005, and Aquatic Plants of Pennsylvania: A Complete Reference Guide published by Penn Press in 2011.

Ann F. Rhoads, Ph.D. Dr. Ann F. Rhoads recently retired after 36 years at the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania and Adjunct Professor in the Biology Department, University of Pennsylvania. She taught Field Botany and Systematics of Flowering Plants at the University of Pennsylvania is co-author, along with Dr. Timothy Block, The Plants of Pennsylvania, An Illustrated Manual (2007); Trees of Pennsylvania Complete Reference Guide (2005); and Aquatic Plants of Pennsylvania (2011). Ann has extensive field experience with the botany of Pennsylvania including surveys of endangered, threatened, and rare plants which resulted in the contribution of hundreds of records to the Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program database. Ann’s total of 14,000 specimens deposited in the Morris Arboretum Herbarium (MOAR) includes more sheets of Carex than any other single genus.

Workshop location. Shaver’s Creek is Penn State’s nature center, offering fun and educational environmental programs and events for the whole community. The center is nestled in the ridge-and-valley area of central Pennsylvania located between State College and Huntingdon, 12 miles from Penn State’s University Park campus. Driving directions and further information about the Center are available at: http://shaverscreek.org/about-us/visitor-information/. Lodging is available in nearby State College, Huntingdon, or at Greenwood Furnace State Park.