Ask the plant: investigating and teaching plant structure

Abstract

The discipline of comparative plant morphology can play an important role in both teaching and research at a comprehensive university. Natural variation can be used as the basis for studies that begin with the simple premise of ‘ask the plant’. Research questions from a variety of disciplines can be examined using the unique methods and perspectives of comparative morphology. In addition to its common application in clarifying developmental relationships and processes, comparative morphology is naturally and has been historically suited to examining the adaptations of plants to their environments. Two examples (one from grasses and another from native Utah shrubs) of studies relating plant form to patterns of growth and competition will be used to illustrate this interface between morphology and ecology. The potential role of comparative morphology in teaching will be described for three different levels in the university curriculum: Biology I (an introductory course for first-year students); Plant Structure (an elective for third- or fourth-year students); and Ecological Plant Morphology and Anatomy (post-baccalaureate or postgraduate level). Describing and explaining plant diversity and variation in the context of common structural adaptations, rather than from a strictly taxonomic perspective, has been an effective ‘hook’ to interest students in plants in the introductory course. In the more advanced courses it has provided a useful framework for understanding how plant diversity reflects adaptive value as well as common descent and has provided a broader perspective for student research projects in the basic and applied plant sciences. © 2006 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2006, 150, 73–78.