This post was written by Charles Paxton:
The Louisiana Master Naturalist Northeast’s botanical workshop group convened at the Chevron gas station in Georgetown, right by the Kisatchie National Forest, an easy day trip from Monroe. We were blessed with very fine Spring weather.
The Kisatchie is exemplary of Louisiana’s amazing biodiversity, with at least 56 reptile, 30 amphibian, and a huge range of bird and plant species recorded. Our plant check-list for the event had over 480 species and we added to it over the course of the day.
I think it is fair to say that my brain is still reeling from the event. It will take a while to digest the wealth of information. I particularly enjoyed the way Dr. Allen gave us extra information about the plants we encountered, especially about their roles as food plants for wildlife and their human applications.
We encountered a great many different plants. Dr. Allen is very knowledgeable and his enthusiasm for the subject is contagious. He made a superb expert guide and was very patient with all our questions. Though his workshop did much to lift the veil of mystery and convey the wonder of these plants, we were keen to buy his book on wildflowers to follow this up and for future explorations.
It was great to spend a fun day of learning in the outdoors with a very nice and friendly group of people.
Kauffman’s addendum: We identified and talked about 46 species of woody plants, 61 species of herbaceous plants, 3 grasses, 1 sedge, 1 rush and 1 fern, a total of 113 plants! The species list has been uploaded to the “Observe…” tab of this website.
Louisiana Master Naturalists - Northeast 
Reblogged this on Wild Open Eye – Natural Vision, News from Wild Open Eye and commented:
Kimmie and I greatly enjoyed the Plants workshop with Dr. Allen.
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