Another fantastic day of field work

Written by Calvin, Justin and Mitchell

Today has been are 4th day here at London, and our 2nd day doing field work with the Royal Botanical Gardens of Kew. We traveled to calcareous grasslands, or grasslands with chalky soils containing calcium. There we met up with Dr. Bruce Pavlik, Dr. Lisbeth Louderback, and Dr. Sarah Barlow. Dr. Barlow led today’s excursion on studying different species of flowers, animals, and grasses in Hertfordshire 40 miles north of London, and about the Anemone Pulstilla, also known as the Pasque Flowers. We learned that Pasque flowers are an endangered species of wildflowers that can only be found on chalky soil. After talking a bit to Laurence, the head park ranger of Ashridge Park, we hade ourselves a picnic on the grass near a big oak tree. Then, we continued our excursion to survey vegetation with Dr. Barlow. At 3:00 PM, we finished and took the minivan with Tom, our wonderful driver who drove us around all day and waited for us while we were at the parks, back to the hotel where we rested and recharged our batteries.