Identification of ferns, horsetails and clubmosses for beginners

This one day course delivered as two online sessions across two days will give participants the confidence to identify a ferns, horsetails and clubmosses. The key area of training is focussed on using features of ferns, horsetails and clubmosses to accurately identify to species level. We will also look at how ferns, horsetails and clubmosses have environmental preferences and may grow in different conditions/habitats.

Training will be delivered online at a relaxed pace using slides to give examples of fern, horsetail and clubmoss features and simple keys which we will work through as part of group activities with question and answer sessions to follow.

This course is relevant to professional ecologists who need to improve their plant identification knowledge and skills for botanical surveys, and for conservation volunteers who require accurate ID skills in order to conduct surveys and record species for conservation charities. It would also be useful for anyone who works within wet habitats, shady woodlands or other habitats where ferns and horsetails are present and acidic moorland areas where clubmosses are prevalent to understand the environmental preferences which each species may have and how some species can be useful as habitat indicators.

This course is suitable for botanical surveyors, land managers, local authority ecologists and planners, conservation officers and licensing staff within SNCOs or NGOs, students, graduates, ecological consultants, environmental managers, wardens and rangers

No prior knowledge is required

• Understand identification features of ferns, horsetails and clubmosses
• Use features of ferns, horsetails and clubmosses to accurately identify to species level, using simple keys
• Understand environmental conditions preferred by each species
• Use safe, biosecure and legal species handling techniques
• Recognise personal limitations and areas for development and seeking opportunities to develop knowledge, understanding and skills.