Field Key to VCR Plant Species
Subsection XIII. Herbaceous Plants with Basal Leaves Only
- 1a. Leaves simple, not fernlike fronds.
- 2a. Leaves variously lobed and toothed, two or more times longer than wide, in a basal
rosette; flower heads yellow with 7 or more regular parts, 6-13 mm. wide, usually
solitary; stalk very slender.....Dwarf Dandelion, Krigia virginica
(KRGVRG).
- 2b. Leaves neither lobed nor toothed.
- 3a. Leaves round; leaf stalk up to 45 cm. tall; stems are slender white rhizomes; inflorescence simple to a 3-forked spike up to 17 cm. long; flowers mostly
sessile; fruit rounded or truncated at base, margins acute.....Whorled Pennywort, Hydrocotyle verticillata
(HYDVRT).
- 3b. Leaves oval- or oblong-shaped, densely hairy beneath; flower heads with 3
conspicuous resin-dotted bracts at their bases; flowers white to purple; leaves
may also be somewhat toothed.....Elephant's-Foot, Elephantopus spp.
(ELP111).
- 3c. Leaves long and lance-shaped.
- 4a. Leaves thick and rigid, 30-75 cm. long, with twisting threads, often sharply pointed; flowers whitish, nodding, in a large panicle several
feet long; plant large (1.5-3 m. tall).....Yucca, Yucca filamenosa
(YCCFLM).
- 4b. Leaves not thick and rigid.
- 5a. Stems wiry, bearing a leaf-like bract in the middle, from which the long flowering branches stem; lower stem distinctly winged
(wih flat edges); flowers often pale blue and yellow-eyed, with 6
regular parts, 1.2-2 cm. wide, in a small umbel or soliary;
each petal-like part with a brisle-tip: plant 15-45 cm. tall......Stout Blue-eyed Grass, Sisyrinchium angustifolium
(SSYANG).
- 5b. Stems without leaf-like bracts and distinct wings.
- 6a. Leaves lance-shaped, tapering at the base, with a prominent mibrib; flowers in a much-branched cluster, lining single side of each branch, very small, punple or lavender with 5 regular parts.....Sea Lavender, Limonium nashii var. nashii
(LMNNSH).
- 6b. Leaves narrow, grass-like or rounded.
- 7a. Flowers in an umbel or solitary; leaves strongly onion-scented; flower cluster erect, containing numerous small bulbs and few, if any, flowers;
leaves 15-45 cm. long; flowers whitish or pink with 6 regular parts.....Wild Garlic, Allium canadense
(ALLCND).
- 7b. Flowers in a slender, often spirally twisted spike; leaves not onion-scened; flowers small, white,
sometimes with a yellow lip, irregular parts; base
of flowers downy; small stem leaves occasionally
present.....Spring Ladies' Tresses, Spiranthes vernalis
(SPRVRN).
- 1b. Leaves compound. fernlike fronds; leafsalks growing from rhizomes.
- 8a. Leafstalks unbranched.
- 9a. Leafstalk and axis lustrous, brittle, red-brown; leaves 10-50 cm. long, clustered, deciduous, once-divided without deep lobes in leaflets; sterile fronds pale
green, shorter, spreading; fertile fronds erect with spores along midribs of
leaflets; rhizome creeping.....Ebony Spleenwort. Asplenium platyneuron
(ASPPLT).
- 9b. Axis pubescent (hairy) and green; fronds thin, light- or yellow-green,
delicate; fertile fronds narrow, slightly taller than sterile ones; leaflets
distinctly lobed, cutting to midrib, slightly hairy, slightly tapering at
base; rhizomes clustered or spreading; plant to 1.2 m. tall.....Marsh Fern, Thelypteris palustris
(THLPLS).
- 9c. Leafstalk and axis not hairy, slender and green if frond sterile, darker
if fertile; leaflets distinctly lobed or toothed, united at base by a broad
wing if on sterile fronds; rhizome slender.....Netted Chain-Fern, Woodwardia areolata
(WDWARP).
- 8b. Leafstalks often branched; fronds coarse.
- 10a. Leaves singly compounded, not lobed; fronds dull green, dimorphic, to 1.8 m. tall, clustered in large tussocks; upper pinnae on fertile fronds transformed
into sporangia in small clusters; leaflets alternate, 7-10 pairs; rhizomes
stout, woody, without scales, in massive clumps of old roots.....Royal Fern, Osmunda regalis var. spectabilis
(OSMRGL).
- 10b. Leaves singly compounded with deep feather-like lobes to doubly compounded; grows in large colonies; leafstalk reddish towards base and
yellowish above; fronds erect, stiff, vary in length but average 45 cm.;
spores on margins of leaflets; rhizomes deep and sunken.....Bracken Fern, Pteridium aquilinum
(PTRAQL).
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