The Northern Neck Chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalists is pleased to announce a free General Meeting workshop on the use of keys in identification of plants with a special emphasis on the smart phone app, Flora of Virginia.  

This General Meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 9, 2019 beginning at 1:15 at the Northumberland Public Library, 7204 Northumberland Hwy, Heathsville, VA 22473.  The workshop will begin about 1:30.

The Flora of Virginia smart phone app is available for $19.99 for Android and Apple devices. It contains everything in the $90 print edition, Flora of Virginia, plus a lot more. The App should be on your phone prior to attending.  

The App features a Graphic Key, in addition to a traditional dichotomous keys. Most species descriptions contain 1–5 photographs, and many include a botanical illustration along with range maps showing county records.  Treatments of rare or threatened species include conservation ranks, and invasives are scored as to level of invasiveness. And county-by-county range maps are now color-coded as to native or nonnative.

Best of all, no Internet connection is required once it has been downloaded to your device.

The class will be conducted by Virginia Certified Master Naturalists Betsy Washington (a botanist) and Kyle Langford (an IT person).  It will include a hand on workshop following an introduction to the botanical terms and the use of keys.

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