British grasses and herbs: Their relationship with soils and habitats

The course will explore which grasses and herbs prefer neutral soils and which prefer alkaline soils and the reasons for this. For each one of the key species that we find, we will look in detail at their growing and dispersal behaviours and which other herbs and grasses they associate with in their natural landscapes.

The course will have an introduction to plants and their characteristics, and then we will visit two sites near Durham City. The first site will be a cemetery with a meadow with neutral soils and the second site will be a disused quarry with alkaline soils. We will be looking at the grasses and herbs growing in these two very different habitats, practicing how to identify them and looking at the association of plants they grow with and what these assemblages of plants can tell us about the land use and history.

This workshop will be 1 day, (9 to 4pm) completely outdoors, following social distancing rules and we will have up to 5 people participating.