The Botany & Wildcrafting Course is geared toward introductory to intermediate level students. It delves into not only plant morphology and taxonomy, giving you the tools to identify plants and their structures, but also plant families (which can help us to not only recognize and identify plants but to also to potentially understand some of their uses). It will help familiarize students with the botany and uses of 25+ herbs in the course, and in addition students gain knowledge on how to accurately identify one closely related species of an herb from another (e.g., two goldenrod species) by becoming intimately familiar with the different forms that leaves, flowers, etc. take and how to use a dichotomous key. 

It discusses how different herbs are related, evolutionarily speaking, so students can begin to extrapolate about new plants that they identify and what their plant family might say about their herbal use. It explores plant biology and the role plants play in the ecosystem, as well as bioregional herbalism as a way to become intimately connected with your own ecosystem and honor the ecology that exists there as well as become its steward; and delves into wildcrafting ethics, the importance of which cannot be overstated if we are to be thoughtful stewards of our ecosystems. 

It also discusses at-risk plants as well as the criteria that are evaluated when determining their status, which should also be considered for any plant you endeavor to harvest. There are fun lessons on drawing herbs and creating an herbarium, both wonderful ways to get to know plants in more depth. Plus lessons on drying herbs and making simple herbal preparations! 

This is a work-at-your-own pace online course, wherein you take a quiz at the end of each unit to progress to the next unit. The workload is based on how much time and effort the individuals puts into our suggested projects and studying for the quiz.

Your enrollment comes with Lifetime Access to the course so you can enjoy your herbal studies at a pace that is most convenient to your schedule!  We estimate the Botany & Wildcrafting Course takes approximately 30 study hours, but this will vary depending on the student. We suggest students complete this course in 1 year, and we provide a downloadable PDF of each unit and video transcript for offline study.

Students in our courses also have access a vibrant Herbal Academy community page on Facebook so you can interact with peers and teachers. Upon completion of any of our foundational courses, you'll receive a certificate of completion that states you've completed the course under the direction of the Herbal Academy.