Unit I: Morphology, Taxonomy & the Ancient Lore

Before you can grow a plant well, my dears, you must learn to see it. Truly see it. This unit is about the plant itself: how it is built from leaf-tip to root-hair, how botanists gave every plant on earth a proper two-part name, and how the long human story of herbs unfolded, from the first domesticated grains to the spice ships. We begin, as all good botany begins, with a single plant of your very own.

There is one greenhouse in this unit with a darker door. Lesson 6 will teach you which plants can harm you, how to recognize them, and how to handle every green thing with respect. Do not skip it, and do not fear it. Knowledge is the safest tool in this course.

Unit Learning Objectives

By the end of this unit, scholars will be able to:

• Select a suitable beginner plant as a Scholar's Familiar and begin a grow ledger with baseline observations.
• Identify leaf shapes, margins, arrangements, and venation, and distinguish taproot from fibrous root systems.
• Read and write scientific plant names correctly and explain why common names cannot be trusted for identification.
• Trace the documented history of cultivated plants and distinguish documented history from folklore.
• Identify four dangerously poisonous plants and their look-alikes, and state the core rules of safe plant handling.

In This Unit

The Unit I Quiz closes this unit. You will find it, with its download, at the end of Lesson 7: The Unit I Threshold Examination.

What Scholars Will Grow, Practice, and Make

Scholars choose and settle their Scholar's Familiar (or adopt a plant to visit), open a grow ledger, observe leaves and stems with a magnifying glass, look up their Familiar's scientific name and family, research its history, and complete the threshold examination.

With the plant now truly seen and safely known, we turn in Unit II to the question every plant asks of its gardener: what kind of home will you give me?