Water Lillies & Buttercups

Question 1

Describe and characterize…

Aristolochiaceae

Birthworts

Answer 1

• CA 3 CO 0 A 12 G (6)
• 8-10ish genera and 600 species worldwide, but only 1 in Wisconsin: Asarum canadense
• Cordate or heart-shaped leaves
• petals almost entirely absent, with an inferior ovary & 3 sepals.
• fly/beetle pollinated

Question 2

Answer 2

Asarum canadense

American Ginger

• found in virtually all mesic forests in Wisconsin.
• Leaves are classically cordate. Has no petals!

Question 3

Describe and characterize…

Nymphaeaceae

Water Lillies

Answer 3

CA 3+ CO ∞ A ∞ G (∞)

• aquatic herbs with a very obvious aquatic niche in still waters.
• they have floating or submersed leaves, air cavities in tissue, lack of vessels, etc.
• showy, smelly flowers.
• many parts at each whorl and many stamens. superior, syncarpic pistil.
• petaloid sepals and reduced petals.

Question 4

Answer 4

Nuphar variegata

Yellow Pond Lily / Spatterdock

• huge underwater rhizomes that look like a huge monster.
• flowers and leaves float at the surface of the water.
• sepals are petaloid and the petals are minute, smaller than even the stamens, which almost look like little leaves.

Question 5

Describe and characterize…

Cabombaeceae

Water Shields

Answer 5

• small, wind-pollinated, clonal aquatic with peltate leaves.
• they are protogynous, which means they have a female phase first, then a male phase.
• Just 1 in Wisconsinsin - Brasenia shreberi

Question 6

Describe and characterize…

Ceratophyllaceae

Coon’s Tails

Answer 6

• submersed aquatic, recognizable by it’s whorled leaves that are dichotomously forked.
• reduced, unisexual flowers on the same plant, making it monoecious.
• 2 species in Wisconsin.

Question 7

Answer 7

Ceratophyllum demersum

Coon’s Tail

• an unrooted aquatic plant that floats near the water’s surface.
• can reproduce asexually from any stem fragment!
• used to be considered sister to the rest of angiosperms, but we know now it’s nestled in the base of angiosperms.

Question 8

Describe and characterize…

Ranunculaceae

Buttercups

Answer 8

CA 3+ CO (0) 5+ A ∞ G 3+

• old, important line which is the first diverging lineage of eudicots
• 13 native geera and 53 sp. in WI, with 20 of them being in Ranunculus.
• -* Herbs, but sometimes woody climbers or low shrubs. Oftentimes poisonous!
• NO STIPULES. Contrasted with Rosaceae, who DO have stipules.
• leaves are alternate, USUALLY basal and cauline, often divided or palmately lobed or compound.
• Very variable flowers, but they have many stamens and many free carpels (apocarpic). Fruit is very diverse too!

Question 9

Answer 9

Anemone cinquefolia

Wood Anemone

• 5-lobed leaves give in the epithet “cinquefolia”.
• the five-lobed leaf and the inflorescense arise separately from the rhizome.
• lcks petals, and the sepals are petaloid.

Question 10

Answer 10

Caltha palustris

Marsh Marigold

• tends to grow in thick bunches in shallow water or thick mud, almost always in association with a fresh water source.
• no petals, just sepals. Has follicle fruits!

Question 11

Answer 11

Ranunculus hispidus

Ranunculaceae

Swamp Buttercup

• both sepals and petals, which is pretty unique for this genus.
• white flowered forms prefer wetter areas, and all leaves as basal.
• leaves to tend to be kinda hairy.

Question 12

Magnolia

Magnolias

Answer 12

• none are native to WI, but common front yard/showy plants.
• very primitive family, assumed for a long time to be the most primitive of the angiosperms.
• spiral arrangement of parts on the flower, and blooming can even occur before the leaves come out.

Question 13

Anemone

Hepatica / Liverleaf

Answer 13

• two species of this A. acutiloba and A. americana - were in the old genus of Hepatica, but now in Anemone.
• No petals, just a single whorl of sepal and many stames & pistils.

Question 14

Nymphaea

White Water-lillies

Answer 14

• only one species in this genus in Wisconsin - Nymphaea odorata - but this genus is still under debate.
• strongly scented flowers!

Question 15

Enemion

False Rues

Answer 15

• produces achenes rather than follicles.
• only one species in WI - Enemion biternatum - and grows, often, in moist woods with other members of Ranunculaceae.
• one of the most abundant spring ephemerals and can form big ol’ carpets.

Question 16

Thalictrum

Meadow-rues

Answer 16

Ranunculaceae

• wind pollinated, robust, and diecious. Wind pollinated tends to mean unisexual structures, like what Thalictrum has.
• larges herbs that tend to like open habitats.
• Anemonela thalictroides is insect pollinated, however - an example of a Thalictrum that moved back to insect pollination.

Question 17

Describe and characterize.

Nelumbonaceae

Lotus Lillies

Answer 17

P ∞ A ∞ G (∞)

• one genus and two species, with the other being in east Asia.
• aquatic floating or emergent leaved, with peltate leaves and solitary inflorescenses.