Getting to grips with grasses

We've featured Faith Anstey's very popular plant family ID training sessions on these pages before, but this year, for the first time, she also also ran a Grass ID workshop. 

Over to Faith to tell us how it went:

"Twenty people participated in a very successful Grass ID workshop held at Holyrood Park Education Centre in Edinburgh earlier this month. It was organised and led by Faith Anstey and a team of BSBI volunteer tutors.

"The workshop started off in the classroom comparing grasses with other monocots, examining the structure of grasses and learning terms essential for ID.  

"Keys were not used at all – because of "kleidophobia": the fear that keys invariably induce in beginners! 

"However, participants were introduced to 20 common grass species of neutral grassland by means of a flowchart. In the afternoon there was a practical field work session looking at the species in Holyrood Park. 

"The softly-softly approach and the practical sessions with experienced tutors in the classroom and field were much valued and enjoyed by the students. 

"Given the great feedback we got from students, we will almost certainly repeat the workshop next year".

Many thanks to Faith for this report and to Sandy Edwards (one of Faith's volunteer tutors and also County Recorder for Fife & Kinross) for the photos.