Class: Herbology (Professor Fernfoot)
Pairs with: Unit I, the opening lessons on observation and growing. The lessons themselves live on the Herbology class page.
Trip type: Botanical Garden / Greenhouse
Where it works: any botanical garden, public greenhouse, conservatory, or garden center with labeled beds. Most towns have one within reach; many are free. Allow an unhurried hour or two.
Why we're going: Unit I teaches you to observe a plant slowly and to understand how it grows. That is hard to practice on a jar of dried leaves. The eight study plants of this class run through the whole course, and this trip takes the lessons out to meet at least one of them alive, rooted, and growing, looked at the way Professor Fernfoot would: slowly, and from more than one side.
The mission: The eight study plants of this class are mint, sage, thyme, rosemary, lavender, chamomile, comfrey, and mugwort. Most scholars meet them first dried, in jars. This trip is for meeting at least one of them alive, rooted, and growing. You will come home with a sketch of a living study plant drawn roots to flower, and its label copied exactly, Latin name and all.
What to record:
A sketch of one study plant growing where it lives, roots to flower, not just the harvested part.
The plant's label, copied exactly, Latin name included.
One thing the living plant tells you that a jar of dried herb never could: its height, its scent on the air, its leaf texture, its visitors.
Which of the other seven study plants you also found growing, if any.
How it runs:
Level One — At Home: Take the hunt to the grocery herb section or a farmers' market stall, where potted herbs count as living. Identify each of the eight that is present by sight and by scent, and write down which ones your town simply does not sell. An honest "not found here" is a finding too.
Level Two — In Person: Go to the garden, greenhouse, or conservatory and find your study plant in the ground or in a proper bed. Stay with it five full minutes: watch what the light does and what visits. Sketch before you photograph; the sketch is where the looking happens.
Picture ideas for the gallery:
Your study plant in its bed, label and all, the way a visitor first meets it.
A close look at leaf, stem, or flower, showing the texture the dried herb hides.
Whatever visits the plant while you watch: a bee, a butterfly, the gardener.
The bed or greenhouse row it grows in, so the gallery sees the collection it belongs to.
Etiquette & safety: Garden rules are the lesson's rules: stay on paths, touch nothing you have not been invited to touch, and never pick so much as a leaf. Identification on this trip is for your notebook alone. Nothing gets tasted, brewed, or used, however familiar the plant looks.
Field Report: What did the living plant teach you that the dried herb in a jar could not? File your report in the comments below: where you went, what you found, and one thing that surprised you. Photographs go to the Field Trip Gallery through the form on the Field Trip Office page, with the town and country where they were taken.
