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

– Cactus, bitterroot

• Irregular dicot flowers– Teasel, pea, toadflax, penstemon, mint, Indian paintbrush

• Regular dicot flowers with 3 or 0 petals– Spurge (eg poinsetta)

• Regular dicot flowers with 4 petals– Phlox, plantain, harebell, dogwood

• Regular dicot flowers with 5 united petals– Borage (Gromwell), morning glory

• Regular dicot flowers with 5 separate petals– Rose, St Johnswort, Dianthus, Geranium

Using keys to plants

• Variety of keys

• Some based on colors of flowers

• Some technical

• Regardless, important to keep in mind some basics

• For example, the following key to get to grasses versus forbs:

Some examples of prairie dicots:

Beebalm, Butter and eggs, yellowbell, Indian paintbrush, Dianthus

Arrowleaf Balsamroot BitterrootBalsamorhiza sagittata Lewisia sp

Lupine -Lupinus sp.

Artemisia frigida

Artemisia ludoviciana

Artemisia dracunculus

SAGESAsteraceae

4 major North American graminoid plant families:

• Typhaceae - cattail (plants 3-6’ tall, flower spike 1” thick and 4-12” long)

• Juncaceae – rush (flowers not enclosed in chaff-like bracts) – “lilies turned to grass”

• Poaceae – grass (stems hollow, round; leaves wrapped around stem; leaves in 2 rows)

• Cyperaceae – sedge (stems solid, triangular; leaf bases forming tubes about the stem; leaves in 3 rows) – “sedges have edges”

On to grasses …

• Grasslands would not be … without grasses – Agrostology = study of grasses

• Grasses are flowering plants, but the flowers lack showy petals and sepals - seeds are wind-pollinated

• Grasses are in the family Poaceae

• Subdivided into 15 Tribes

15 major North American grass Tribes • Triticeae: Agropyron, Elymus, Eremopyrum, Hordeum, Secale, Taeniatherum,

and Triticum.• Aveneae: Agrostis, Alopecurus, Avena, Beckmannia, Calamogrostis,

Deschampsia, Helictotrichon, Hierochloe, Holcus, Koeleria, Phalaris, Phleum, Polypogon, Trisetum, and Ventenata.

• Stipeae: Stipa and Oryzopsis.• Meliceae: Catabrosa, Glyceria, and Melica.• *Poeae: Bromus, Dactylis, Festuca, Lolium, Poa, Puccinellia, and Vulpia.• Andropogoneae: Andropogon, Sorghum, and Zea.• Paniceae: Cenchrus, Dichanthelium, Digitaria, Echinochloa, Panicum,

Paspalum, Pennisetum, and Setaria.• Chlorideae: Bouteloua, Buchloe, Cynodon, Eleusine, Schedonnardus, and

Spartina.• Aeluropodeae: Distichlis.• Eragrosteae: Calamovilfa, Eragrostis, Muhlenbergia, Munroa, and

Sporobolus.• Aristideae: Aristida.• Arundineae: Arundo, Cortaderia, and Phragmites.• Danthonieae: Danthonia.• Oryzeae: Leersia, Oryza, and Zizania.• Bambuseae: Arundinaria.

Grass Terminology – Parts of a grass plant

• Leaf = sheath and blade joined by ligule• Floret = flower is inside the:

– lemma (outer bract) and – palea (inside bract)

• Spikelet = floret(s) along rachilla (central axis) and – lower and upper glumes

• Forms of Inflorescence: panicle, raceme, spike

Grass Terminology – Parts of a grass plant

• Leaf = sheath and blade joined by ligule

• Floret = flower is inside the lemma (outer bract) and palea (inside bract)

• Spikelet = floret(s) along rachilla (central axis) and lower and upper glumes

• Forms of Inflorescence: panicle, raceme, spike

R. Pohl: How to Know the Grasses A. Chase: First Book of Grasses

Ligules (left and ctr) Auricles (rt)

Grass Terminology – Parts of a grass plant

• Leaf = sheath and blade joined by ligule

• Floret = flower is inside the lemma (outer bract) and palea (inside bract)

• Spikelet = floret(s) along rachilla (central axis) and lower and upper glumes

• Forms of Inflorescence: panicle, raceme, spike

Grass floretGrass spikelet (generalized)

AWNS – protruding midrib of a lemma or glume; lateral nerves rarely produce awns (Pohl 1954)

FLOWERS – stamens

Comparison of forb to grass showing parts of spikelet

http://gemini.oscs.montana.edu/~mlavin/herb/mtgrass.pdf

Avena

Lolium

Bromus japonicus

Festuca

Grass Terminology – Parts of a grass plant

• Leaf = sheath and blade joined by ligule

• Floret = flower is inside the lemma (outer bract) and palea (inside bract)

• Spikelet = floret(s) along rachilla (central axis) and lower and upper glumes

• Forms of Inflorescence: panicle, raceme, spike

PanicleRaceme Spike

Forms of Inflorescence

Panicle - pedicelPoa pratensis

Festuca idahoensis

Koeleria macrantha Bromus tectorum

Spike - sessile

Grass showing panicle inflorescence, Yarrow

KEYS and PICTURES• Interactive grass key on web:

http://utc.usu.edu/keys/ posted by T. M. Jones.

• "Grasses of Montana" by M. Lavin and C. Seibert (Fall 2005). http://gemini.oscs.montana.edu/~mlavin/herb/mtgrass.pdf

• Texas A&M web site (http://csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/gallery.htm) has good photos of graminoid species