From The Gardens

Pinacea Pines    Coniferales

Trees and shrubs, leaves usually evergreen needle-like or flattened scale structures.  Flowers are catkin-like, cone-like or dry and berry like, enclosing a number of seeds.

Taxaceae  Yews   Coniferales

Trees and shrubs, evergreen leaves, flowers solitary, axillary; seeds, solitary usually enclosed in a pulpy berry

Cupressaceae Cypress  Coniferales

Trees or shrubs having leaves opposite or whorled usually flattened and scale-like, or sometimes needlelike as in Juniperus.

Aceraceae Maple

Opposite, often palmately lobed leaves with no stipules, sweet bark, flattened form of the two celled ovary

Aquifoliaceae Holly

Leaves mostly alternate, usually evergreen.  Flowers small, solitary or clusters, mostly perfect but sometimes dioecious.

Amaryllidaceae Amaryllis

Bulbous or rhizomatous, with leafy stems arising from the root stock.  Leaves alternate, narrow with no petiole or stem.  Flowers complete, borne singly or in clusters, 3 petal like sepals and 3 petals sometimes with a tube shaped crown, six stamens and a compound pistil.

Araceae Arum

Some water plants, many have heart, arrow or spear shaped single leaves.  Flowers are reduced and modified, crowded onto a club shaped structure called a spadix usually tended by a leaf like structure called a spathe.

Asclepoadaceae Milkweed

Flowers with 5 separate sepals, 5 partially fused petals with a very complicated central structure.  Leaves simple, stems have milky juice.

Berberidaceae Barberry

Trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants, flower parts in threes with anthers opening by hinged lids.

Betulaceae Birch

Deciduous trees and shrubs, leaves alternate, usually toothed with pinnate veins.  Flowers of a single sex;  staminate in slender catkins, pistillate in short spikes or clusters.  Fruit an indehiscent nutlet.

Bromeliaceae Pineapple

Large tough thickened leaves may be covered with scale-like hairs; usually basal and spiny, alternate.  Flowers in spikes, racemes, panicles or heads, parts in threes,

Buxaceae Box

Shrubs or small trees, simple opposite or alternate leaves without stipules.  Flowers one sex, rarely perfect, small with no corolla.  Staminate flowers with a 4 part calex, pistillate with 4-12 parts or none, compound pistil with 3-celled ovary.

Cactaceae Cactus

Fleshy, spiny plants, more or less leafless.  Areoles bear spines or wool, hair or bristles.  New growth always occurs from aeroles.

Campulaceae Campanula

Annual, biennial or mostly perennial herbs, leaves usually alternate, simple.  Flowers often blue, bell-shaped.  Stems may emit a milky juice.

Caprifoliaceae Honeysuckle

Shrubs or small trees, leaves opposite, simple or pinately divided rarely having stipules.  Flowers axillary or in terminal clusters, showy, calex 4 or usually 5 lobes on the rim of the floral cup which completely encloses the ovary.

Caryophyllaceae-Pinks

Herbaceous annuals and perennials with leaves opposite and entire.  Stems usually have swollen nodes.  Flowers mostly perfect, regular, sometimes strongly perfumed, usually in cymes, petals often notched.

Celastraceae-Staff Tree

Shrubs and trees, often woody climbers,  leaves simple, not lobed, leathery, deciduous or evergreen mostly alternate but some opposite, usually with tiny stipules.  Flowers small, greenish or white.  Stamens alternate with petals.

Commelinaceae Spiderwort

Annual or perennial herbs with crisp, watery stems and knotted nodes, alternate leaves somewhat sheathed at the base with linear blades with deep parallel veins.  Branching occurs freely at the nodes.  Flowers in a cyme, showy somewhat enclosed in leaves, which form a kind of spathe.  Three ephemeral petals.

Compositae Composites

Flowers mostly small to tiny, in a close head on a common receptacle.  The calyx reduced to hairs, bristles, scales or a rim, usually surrounded by a leafy involucre, often mistaken for a calyx.  Some florets have a strap shaped corolla called ray flowers.

Crassulaceae Stonecrop

Succulent herbs and pliable shrubs with fleshy leaves and stems.  Flowers are small and star-like, usually in cymes, always symetrical with separate carpels.

Cruciferae Mustard

Mostly annuals and perennials, leaves alternate, some pinnately lobed.  Flowers are truly cross shaped, perfect, regular, small but often showy usually in terminal racemes.  Petals 4, sepals fall early.  Juice has peppery tang, never poisonous.

Cyperaceae Sedges

Grass-like or rush-like, herbaceous  plants in tufted clumps with solid stems, mostly 3 sided.  Leaves are in three ranks and the sheath is closed.  Flowers spikelets in spikes or panicles

Euphorbiaceae Spurge

Mostly shrubs, herbs, sometimes trees with acrid, milky juice fleshy, succulent, thorn bearing.  Flowers of one sex (monoecious) usually subtended by bracts.

Fagaceae Beech

Trees and a few shrubs, leaves alternate, simple, lobed or toothed with straight or pinnate veins.  Flowers axillary on young shoots, always of one sex, staminate are slender catkins or clusters, pistillate flowers solitary or in groups of threes.  Fruit a nut, occurring singly or in clusters enclosed or partially enclosed by consolidated bracts which become woody with maturity.

Geraniaceae Geraniums

Annual or perennial herbs, a few sub shrubs.  Leaves deeply lobed, some with pungent scent.  Flowers complete, 5 sepals, 5 petals, stamens 2 or 3 times the number of petals.  Pistil like crane’s bill.

Gramineae Grass

Mostly herbaceous, a few (bamboo) tree-like.  Stem round, hollow between nodes.  Often a below ground rhizome from which the above ground stems break at the nodes.  Leaves in two distinct parts.  Where it leaves the node it enwraps the stem (sheath).  Below the next higher node a free blade portion of the leaf extends away from the stem.

Ilex Holly

Shrubs, trees.  Branches short and slender, Leaves evergreen, to 4 “ long and 1 ½” wide, dark green, leathery with spine tipped scallops, or rarely entire.  Staminate flowers in clusters on different trees than pistillate flowers (more scattered)  Fruit with stone center usually red.

Iridaceae Iris

Rhizomatous or tuberous rooted herbs with basal leaves in 2 ranks and enfolding one another, linear or sword shaped, often with acrid juice.  Flowers terminal, complete.  Three petals and 3 sepal alternate, single style is usually 3 cleft bearing 3 stigmas.  Two bracts are found below the flower usually papery and dry when the flower is fully open.

Juglandaceae Walnut

Mostly trees, a few shrubs, branches round, leaves alternate usually without stipules.  Flowers monoecious, staminate in long drooping catkins, pistillate 2 or 3 together, or solitary in small racemes or spikes.  Look for bold leaf scars, pinnate leaves and several buds in a row at each node.

Labiatae Mint

Mostly herbs, sub-shrubs and shrubs, stems usually four angled, leaves opposite or whorled, pinnately veined without stipules, dotted with glands containing volatile oils.  Flowers complete, two liped.

Leguminosae Pea

Annual, perennial herbs, shrubs and trees.  Leaves are alternate, mostly compound, pinnate, tri-foliate or digitate or rarely simple.  Flowers butterfly-like, usually in spikes, heads, racemes or panicles.  Common characteristic is one celled superior ovary with one to many ovules on a single placenta, as in the table pea.

Liliaceae Lily

Mostly herbaceous,  some from bulbs or bulb like organs.  Leaves usually in basal rosettes, or alternate on the stem.  Flowers often showy, complete, single or in spikes or racemes or panicles.  Look for 3 petals and 3 sepals, stamens 6 with a 3 celled superior ovary.

Malvaceae Mallow

Herbs, shrubs and trees.  Leaves simple, alternate, entire or lobed, often palmately veined with stipules.  Flowers are showy, solitary or in cymes. Calyx in 5 sepals, corolla of 5 petals, tassel of fused stamens, barely attached at the base to the petals.

Oleaceae   Olive

Mostly trees and shrubs, leaves opposite with no stipules, simple or more commonly pinnately compound, often evergreen.  Flowers small and crowded, mostly perfect.  Calex 4 fused sepals, tubular with 4 lobes or teeth.

Orchidaceae Orchid

Most are perennials with bulbous, tuberous or thickened fleshy leaves, stems and roots.  Flower scapes may arise from the base of the plant or from the axils of leafy stems, from the leaves themselves or may be terminal.  Flowers are bi-laterally symmetrical or strangely irregular.  Look for a column of a single fertile stamen united completely with the style

Papaveraceae Poppy

Almost all are herbs having a milky juice, which is often narcotic.  Leaves with no stipules are alternate, simple, lobed and entire.  Flowers are perfect, regular, 2 sepals fall as bud opens, petals are often wrinkled in bud, 4-12 and fall early.  Fruit is a capsule opening by valves.

Primulaceae Primrose

Perennial or annual herbs, leaves opposite or whorled (rarely alternate) often in basal rosettes, without stipules.  Flowers perfect, showy.  Scapes unbranched, leafless, bearing flowers in an umbrel.  Commonly 5 calex lobes, corola 5 spreading lobes, a superior ovary.

Ranunculaceae Buttercup

Mostly herbaceous, some aquatic.  Leaves alternate, often dissected.  Flowers mostly perfect and complete.  Calex often colored like corolla, sepals 3 to many, stamens free, pistils simple, distinct and unconnected.  Look for dome or cone shaped receptacle supporting numerous separate simple pistles.  Often petals are missing and colorful sepals take their place.

Rosaceae Rose

Herbs, shrubs, creepers and trees. Flowers terminal, in racemes or cymes, usually perfect, usually cup shaped.  Calex 5, sepals may seem to be united at base.  Stamens several to many, commonly inserted in whorls of 5 on the rim of the disc just inside the petals around the ovary.

Rutaceae Rue

Shrubs or trees, some herbaceous.  Scented, gland dotted leaves, 5 sepals and petals, stamens double that, pistil inserted in gynophore.

Salicaceae-Willow

Trees or shrubs, usually deciduous, Leaves alternate, simple with stipules.  Wood soft and light,  Catkins of willows are upright,  those of aspens and poplars are pendulous.  Bark bitter, dioecious catkins and fly-away seeds with silky cotton.

Saxirfragaceae Saxifrage

Mostly herbs, shrubs and trees, leaves more or less succulent, usually no stipules.  Flowers regular, perfect, sepals usually 5, petals inserted on the floral cup.  Limited number of stamens, carpels fewer than sepals.

Solanaceae Nightshade

Mostly herbs, leaves mostly alternate, sometimes whorled.  Foliage often rank smelling, sap may be toxic.  Corolla folded in bud, often the joined petals are folded lengthwise.  Flowers in 5 parts,

Umbelliferae Parsley

Mostly annual, biennial or perennial herbs with hollow internodes.  Leaves usually pinnately compound alternate.  Minute or small flowers in umbrells.  Petiole bases sheath the node

Verbenaceae Verbena

Herbs, trees and shrubs, leaves opposite, simple or compound often serrate or rough to the touch.  Flowers complete in spikes, cymes or panicles.  Four angled stems, tubular corolla with lips, more or less entire superior ovary