Tropical Plant Identification Workshop (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew + Dr. Katja Rembold, University of Göttingen)

A one-week training workshop was conducted from 11 to 15 September 2017 at SEAMEO BIOTROP (the Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Tropical Biology) by Katja Rembold (B06) and 5 plant experts from the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew (UK, https://www.kew.org/). The workshop was based on the annual Kew tropical plant identification and was provided for 22 participants from seven Indonesian partner institutions: LIPI, IPB, UNJA, UNTAD, UNIPA, Harapan Rainforest, and BIOTROP.

The course gave the participants an overview of 38 of the most commonly encountered tropical vascular plant families, as well as an introduction to plant morphology and identification tools. Through short illustrated lectures, and extensive hands-on practical sessions, Kew’s botanists demonstrated the key characters for each family, sharing their expert tips for identification. Participants joined identification sessions focused on tropical Southeast Asia. An excursion to the living collections in Bogor Botanical Garden provided a chance to apply this knowledge ‘in the field’. The workshop received very positive feedback and the organizers are already discussing the idea to provide a second plant identification workshop in 2018.