How to identify prairie plants? • Look at picture books of plants and use dichotomous keys. • Pictures in books work best for plants with nice flowers. For grasses, keys are a must. • How to decide if a plant is a grass or a flower? How to decide which key to use? • Focus for this class is mostly grasses.
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How to identify prairie plants? Look at picture books of plants and use dichotomous keys. Pictures in books work best for plants with nice flowers. For.
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How to identify prairie plants?
• Look at picture books of plants and use dichotomous keys.
• Pictures in books work best for plants with nice flowers. For grasses, keys are a must.
• How to decide if a plant is a grass or a flower? How to decide which key to use?
• Focus for this class is mostly grasses.
Which Key to Use• First, to which division of the Plant Kingdom
does the plant belong? This is based on how the plant reproduces.– Spores – Lichen, Mosses & Liverworts, Ferns,
(Bryophyta, Pteridophyta)– Naked seeds, ie conifers (Gymnospermophyta)– Seeds enclosed in an ovary – flowering plants
(Angiospermophyta)
• Montana prairies do include some lichens and mosses, but not ferns (club moss, horsetail, royal fern), unlike UNDERC-East.
Prairie Plants = Flowering Plants
• Flowering plants include flowers, grasses, deciduous trees.
• What makes the distinction?
• Angiosperms are split into 2 classes of plants: those with one seed leaf or Monocotyledoneae; those with 2 seed leaves or Dicotyledoneae.
• Is your plant a monocot or dicot?
Monocots vs Dicots
Dicotyledon class: two seed leaves netted veins tap roots floral parts mostly in 4’s and 5’s
Monocotyledon Class: one seed leaf parallel veins horizontal rootstalks floral parts mostly in 3’s
IF A MONOCOT
• Then, is the plant a monocot with showy flowers?– Examples – Lily family, Iris family, Orchid family
• Or, is the plant a monocot with non-showy flowers?– Examples – Grass, Sedge, Rush are only families
appearing grasslike. Other aquatic families – cattail, pondweed, etc.
IF A DICOT• Dicots account for many families with the Aster
family as one of the largest.– Aster family is the largest family of flowering plants in
the northern latitudes – 346 genera and 2,687 species in US & Canada.
• Then, is your dicot plant a member of the Aster family?– Most complex – “sepals” are bracts (ie artichokes),
disk flowers and ray flowers– Example – dandelion has only ray flowers
Composites - Asteraceae
IF DICOT IS NOT ASTERACEAE• If there is a flower - make notes on
number of sepals, petals, and stamens. Remember the order from outside to inside – Sepals, Petals, Stamens, Pistil in middle – flower parts occur in rings.
• Note whether flowers are regular or irregular
• Are sepals united or separate• Notice position of leaves – ie alternate,
opposite, basal or whorled
Keys to Dicot Flowers• Regular dicot flowers with numerous petals