For. Estudillo attends international plant identification course
May 29, 2012
Forester Glenn B. Estudillo, Science Research Specialist II at FPRDI’s Anatomy and Forest Botany Section, attended the Tropical Plant Identification Course held from 24 April to 4 May 2012 at the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG) in London, United Kingdom. The training course was designed for conservationalists, environmental professionals, foresters, ethnobotanists, ecologists, zoologists and graduate students, with participants coming from Botswana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Philippines, Malaysia, Brazil, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
“The course exposed us to 70 of the most common tropical plant families and introduced us to plant structures and identification tools. Lectures were supplemented by hands-on sessions, examinations, and visits to living plant collections,” related Estudillo. The identification sessions focused on plant species found in Tropical Asia, Tropical Africa and Tropical America.
Estudillo noted that his attendance to the course allowed him to meet Dr. Rogier de Kok, head of Kew’s Southeast Asian team. “Dr. Kok shared that Kew has limited access to Philippine forests, that is why it has minimal herbarium specimens from our country. We will submit a proposal to Kew which, if approved, will benefit the Institute, particularly our collection of plant and wood specimens,” he concluded. ### (Apple Jean C. Martin, 23 May 2012)
