03 Jul Supporting Professional Development: Grasses, Sedges & Rushes Training
In June 2025, ecologists from our Newcastle team attended a training day with specialist botanical surveyor Julia Quiñonez of Verde Ecology, who led a session on the botany of grasses, sedges, rushes, and horsetails in County Durham. The training was aimed at helping the team improve their ability to identify some of the more uncommon species.
The team spent the morning studying the identifying features of acidic and neutral grassland species in detail, including nomenclature of the different parts of the plant, how to inspect the flowering heads of grasses for their key features, and the use of ligules to differentiate between species. Julia also led the team through the use of various identification guides and field keys, an equally important skill as learning to recognise species at a glance.
In the afternoon, the team broke into small groups to find and identify species on their own, building on the skills gained in the morning session. The team finished the day with a brief look at aquatic marginal species, including a number of horsetails – a number of which the team hadn’t seen before.
“ Julia was extremely knowledgeable at plant identification, specifically grasses, sedges and rushes in several grassland habitats. The session really helped to further our understanding and we all learned new plant identification skills that will be very useful when undertaking baseline habitat surveys and condition assessments.” Naomi Eckersley, Ecologist.
