FLORA OF RICE CREEK FIELD STATION

Contents:

• Mosses & Liverworts:
  Small tufted or creeping green plants spreading to form mats on soil, rocks, logs or tree trunks (a few aquatic). Lacking internal strengthing (vascular) tissues.

• Clubmosses, Horsetails, & Ferns:
  Herbaceous plants reproducing by spores. Supported by internal strengthing (vascular) tissue. Clubmosses resemble mosses but are larger. Horsetails have segmented (jointed) stems with a series of tiny leaves encircling the stem at each joint. Most ferns have large, complexly branched leaves arising from creeping or underground stems.

• Woody Plants:
  Trees, shrubs, and woody vines; plants with persistent above-ground stems that live from year to year.

  • Conifers: Pines, Spruces, Larches, Firs, Cedars, Yews
    Mostly trees, with small scale-like or slender needle-like leaves. Most with seed produced in a cone and with evergreen foliage

  • Broad-Leaved Woody Plants: (also see Herb Garden under Cultivated Herbaceous Plants)
    Trees and shrubs with broad, usually deciduous leaves.

    • With Alternate Leaves:
      Leaves arranged singly, or one at a time, on the stem.

      • Simple Alternate Leaves:
        Leaves consisting of a single broad blade with or without a narrow stalk.

      • Compound Alternate Leaves:
        Leaves consisting of a blade divided into a number of broad parts each blade-like in nature.

    • With Opposite or Whorled Leaves:
      Leaves arranged in pairs, two at a time, or three at a time on the stem.

• Wild Growing Herbaceous Plants:
  Plants that grow without cultivation and that die back to gound at the end of the growing season.

  • Aquatic Plants:
    Plants growing completely submerged or floating on the surface of streams, pools, and ponds (see also Riccia fluitans and Fissidens grandifrons under Mosses and Liverworts, and Azzolla caroliniana under Ferns). Look for emergent plants, those rooted in water but with leaves, stems, and flowers projecting above the water surface, in Graminoids, Spring Flowers or Summer Flowers.

  • Graminoid Plants:
    Grasses, sedges, reeds, rushes, and cat-tails. Plants generally with long, narrow, pointed leaves or with green stems and no apparent leaves and with very small flowers often of unique structure.

  • Asters and Their Relatives:
    The Aster family; Asters, Daisys, Goldenrods, Thistles, Burdock, Ragweed, Dandelions and relatives. Flowers tiny and born in clusters (heads) that in overall appearance resemble a single flower.

  • Other Wild Growing Herbaceous Plants

    • Lawn & Roadside Weeds:
      Weedy, often annual plants found only in lawns, roadsides and parking areas, or recently overturned earth. A few common lawn weeds that also grow in fields and along trails are included here as well as with Spring or Summer flowers.

    • Spring Flowers:
      Wildflowers generally flowering before mid-June and not usually found in flowering condition later in the season. Plants found flowering in early June may also be found under Summer & Fall Flowers.

    • Summer & Fall Flowers:
      Wildflowers generally not flowering until mid-June or later. Plants found flowering in late June may also be found under Spring Flowers.

• Cultivated Herbaceous Plants:

  • Herb Garden:
    Plants, including some woody shrubs, cultivated in the Ruth Sachidanandan Memorial Herb Garden. The species present in the garden may vary from year to year.

  • Other Flower Beds:
    Herbaceous plants cultivated in flower beds. The species present in the gardens may vary from year to year.