Native Plants

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A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

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Friday - April 22, 2005

From: cincinnati, OH
Region: Midwest
Topic: Plant Identification
Title: Keys for identification of native plants in Ohio
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

Do you know of any good web sites that provide keys for the identification of native plants? I'm conducting a wetland plant inventory in southwestern Ohio.

ANSWER:

North Carolina State University has a web site Wetland Plant Identification with dichotomous keys for woody vines, parallel-veined plants, gymnosperms, and trees and shrubs. The web page also offers the option to search by plant characterisitics such as leaf arrangement, leaf structure, axillary bud type, etc.

From the Univeristy of Wisconsin Herbarium at the Cofrin Center for Biodiversity there is a web page, Wetland Plants of Wisconsin, with pictures of leaves, flowers, fruiting heads and more for approximately 110 common wetland species.

From Washington State Department of Ecology there is An On-Line Version of an Aquatic Plant Identification Manual for Washington's Freshwater Plants.

There is a sample of an interactive software program to purchase for PCs using Windows 95 or higher to help in identifying 1,000 Weeds of North America

The University of Florida has a web page Aquatic and Wetland Plants and Invasive Plants with photographs and descriptions that can be searched by scientific name, common name or plant type category (grasses, ferns, sedges, rushes, etc.).

Virginia Tech has a Weed Identification Guide with a Grass Weed Identification Key.

Recommended available print sources are Wetland Plants and Plant Communities of Minnesota and Wisconsin from the Army Core of Engineers, A Great Lakes Wetland Flora for a field guide to vascular plants of the wetlands of the Upper Midwest, and Aquatic Plant Identification Cards from the University of Florida.

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Friday - April 22, 2005

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