Spring Beauty and Sundews

Question 1

Answer 1

Claytonia virginica

• a spring ephemeral. likes rich soils under sugar maple trees!
• edible leaves, but do not eat it…
• northern WI species.
• stalked flowers, 5-parted, and flat leaves.

Question 2

Answer 2

Cerastium fontanum

• spring to early summer flowering, and is a native of Europe.
• widespread weed that is mothing into northern North America.
• mat-forming hairy plant, with five deeply notched petals and five styles.
• has a cyme like most members of the family.

Question 3

Answer 3

Chenopodium album

• flowers are somewhat hard to work with
• 5 parted, no petals, in dense balls.

Question 4

Answer 4

Drosera rotundifolia

• carnivorous, with glandular hairs.
• likes nutrient-poor sites, such as bogs.

Question 5

Answer 5

Silene latifolia

• common in distrubed areas of Wisconsin in summer and fall.
• a very typical Caryophlid, except for the unique fact that it id dioecious.

Question 6

Answer 6

Rumex acetosella

• funnily shaped leaves. often found in dry areas where there is a disturbance, which is why they tend to appear in places all over the world where grazing animals are present.

Question 7

Describe and characterize…

Opuntia

Prickly-pears

Answer 7

• “pads” of the plant are actually the stem! the leaves are either shed quickly or reduced to spines.
• three species in WI, with one considered endangered.

Question 8

Phytolacca

Pokeweeds

Answer 8

• 10 stamens, 10 carpels. 2 species in WI, with one of them (P. acinosa) being naturalized.
• elongate raceme makes them pretty obvious.

Question 9

Persicaria

Knotweeds / Smartweeds

Answer 9

• wispy to shrubby herbs with swollen nodes. look for the very distinctive ocrea.
• some can be really really painful to eat.
• long raceme of flowers. alternate leaves.

Question 10

Amaranthus

Amaranths

Answer 10

Amaranthaceae

• minute flowers in variously compound, congested, and confusing inflorescenses.
• often reddish stems. undergo c4 photosynthesis.

Question 11

Cactaceae

Cacti

Answer 11

P ∞ A ∞ G (4)

• xenomorphic, with one recognized genus.
• inferior ovary with 4 fused carpels and parietal placentation

Question 12

Amaranthaceae

Amaranths

Answer 12

CA (2-5) CO 0 A 2-5 G (2-3)

• small, greenish, perfect/imperfect flowers.
• sepals only, which still persist in the fruit.

Question 13

Polygonaceae

Smartweeds

Answer 13

CA (5-6) CO A 5-8 G (3)

• large and difficult, especially in north temperate regions, because there have been lots of changes.
• the ocrea are very difinitive characteristics.
• herbs and shrubs with swollen nodes, and flowers are typically bisexual and small/
• triangular one-seeded achenes
• uniquitous weeds around the world are Rumex, which have distinctive saggitate / hastate leaf bases.

Question 14

Droseraceae

Sundews

Answer 14

• insectivorous, with 4 species in WI.
• found in peat or nutrient poor soil, and have stcky tentacles to trap and digest prey.
• vary in leaf shape, and the flowers are small in a terminal raceme.

Question 15

Caryopyllaceae

Pinks

Answer 15

CA 5, (5) CO 5 A 5, 10 G (2-5)

• rough plants with parts in 5 and split petal-ends.
• 18 genera and 53 species in WI
• herbs, simple, opposite, nodes usually swollen.
• dichasium infloresencense or cyme. petals often differentiate into a “claw”.
• free-central placentation.

Question 16

Phytolaccaceae

Pokeweeds

Answer 16

CA 5 CO 0 A 10 G ∞

• chiefly tropical or subtropical, with 2 in WI, and only one being native.
• shrubby, with alternate, simple leaves
• typically has an indeterminate raceme.
• no petals, but 2x as many stamens as sepals.

Question 17

Portulaceae

Purslane

Answer 17

• small succulents with small, yellow, 5-merous flowers.
• reduced to just one genus

Question 18

Montiaceae

Spring Beauties

Answer 18

CA 2 CO 5 A 5+ G (3)

• 2 sepals, 5 showy petals, 5 stamens, and 3 fused carepls with basal placentation.