Summer Courses in Organismic Plant Biology
Due to overwhelming interest, plant morphology has returned as the topic for the annual summer short course at the Arnold Arboretum. This short course will be taught by experts from around the world as an intense, two-week lecture, laboratory, and living collections learning experience. The course will be based at the Weld Hill Research Building at the Arnold Arboretum, which offers a state-of-the-art microscopy laboratory for teaching and sits amid the 15,000+ living specimens of more than 2,200 species at the Arnold Arboretum.
This course will provide a working knowledge of tools and concepts that are central to understanding the developmental basis for the remarkable structural and functional diversity of plants. Topics include developmental dynamics, evolutionary diversification, and ecological and physiological function. Ultimately, this course aims to provide the skills necessary to interpret the vast array of morphologies that exist among plants. Each day will consist of lecture and laboratory sessions, with ample opportunity to explore the Arnold Arboretum.
Summer Short Courses are free for all participants.
2020 Short Course flyer (feel free to print and distribute!)
Instructors
Pamela Diggle (University of Connecticut)
Peter Endress (University of Zurich)
William (Ned) Friedman (Harvard University)
Cynthia Jones (University of Connecticut)
Syllabus
Week 1: Vegetative morphology including embryogenesis and establishment of the basic body plan, modes of germination and establishment, concepts of juvenile and adult phases, phyllotaxy, shoot longitudinal symmetry (including heteroblasty), axis thickening, shoot transectional symmetry, branching, structural and functional specialization of shoot branches, leaf development, leaf lateral and longitudinal symmetry, structural and functional specialization of leaves, root development, structural and functional specialization of roots, plant architecture, evo-devo.
Week 2: Reproductive morphology including inflorescence and flower structure, branching patterns and other features of inflorescences, flower organization and architecture, flower development, phyllotaxy and symmetry, organs of the perianth, androecium and gynoecium, synorganization of floral organs, angiosperm flower diversity, flowers of “basal” angiosperms, monocots, eudicots, the most complex flowers (orchids, asclepiads), structural solutions of functional constraints in reproductive biology, evolutionary trends in flowers.
Evening lecturers: To be Announced
Eligibility
Summer Short Courses are open to postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduates in their final year of study (who have been admitted to a graduate or professional program for the fall of 2021).
Non-US-citizens are welcome to apply. Please note that if you are not a United States citizen, you are responsible for obtaining the appropriate visa to travel to the United States to attend the course.
Travel Assistance and Lodging for Participants
Lodging and week-day meals will be provided for all course participants. All participants are eligible to receive up to $500 (domestic travel) or $700 (international travel) USD of funds to help pay for travel to/from the course.
Applications must be submitted by 11:30 pm March 15th, 2020.
Please contact Pam Diggle for any questions.
