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Ohio Plants

The companion web site to EEOB 2210

  • HOME
  • Trees
  • Winter Botany
    • WOODY TWIG BIOLOGY
    • Twigs to Know
  • Conifers
  • Ferns
    • Fern Biology
    • Appalachian Gametophyte Article
  • Inflorescences
    • Inflorescences Explained
    • Photo Gallery Slide Show
  • Flowers and Fruits
    • Flowers & Fruit Biology
    • Fruits to know and love
  • Plant Families
    • PLANT FAMILIES
    • 8 ESSAYS
    • Plant Families Descriptions
    • Plant Families Questions
    • Floral Formula
    • Eight Asteraceae to know and love
  • Bryophytes
    • BRYOPHYTE BIOLOGY
    • MOSSES TO KNOW
    • GATHERING MOSS CHAPTERS
  • Ecosystems
    • FLORISTIC QUALITY ASSESSMENT INDEX
    • GEOBOTANY
    • Prairie
    • Darby Plains Prairie Plants
    • At the Tip of the Prairie Peninsula (John Mack 2002)
  • Invasives
  • Lichens
    • LICHEN BIOLOGY
    • LICHENS TO KNOW
  • Franklin County Flora
  • Dr. Klips’ Instagram Gallery
  • Fungi
  • ONLINE ARCHIVE (SU20)
    • TREES LECTURES
    • PLANT KINGDOM LECTURES
    • FLOWER LECTURES
    • FRUITS LECTURES
    • PLANT FAMILIES LECTURES
    • WOODY TWIG LECTURES
    • CONIFER LECTURES
    • MOSS LECTURES
    • OHIO GEOBOTANY
    • SEEDLESS VASCULAR LECTURES
    • LICHENS LECTURES
  • FIELD EXPERIENCE AU24 (external link)
  • QUIZ SET 1
    • Tree Genus Quiz
    • Tree Sketch ID Quiz
    • Dendrology Fun Facts Quiz
    • Moss Life Cycle Quiz
    • Plant Families Drawings Quiz
    • Flower Parts Quiz
    • Plant Families Photos Quiz
    • Plant Families Icons Quiz
    • Family Descriptions Quiz
    • Family Recognition Characters Quiz
    • Floral Formula Quiz
    • Fruit Types Quiz
    • Inflorescence Quiz
  • QUIZ SET 2
    • Twigs Quiz
    • Fruits to Know Quiz
    • Ferns Drawings Quiz
    • Conifers Quiz
    • Mosses Quiz
    • Lichens Quiz

Welcome to ohioplants.org, your on-line companion to flora classes across Ohio and the Midwest.
Look here for examples of the concepts covered in lecture and lab.
Visit dendro.ohioplants.org for info about woody plants
Visit u.osu.edu/marionprairie to learn about the Ohio State Marion Prairie.

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Had a great week in Maine looking at bryophytes du Had a great week in Maine looking at bryophytes during the annual Crum Workshop (which was combined this year with the lichen-centered Tuckerman Workshop). One of the many many bryophytes spied was this "Michaux's anastrophyllum" (very imaginitive common name, eh?), Anastrophyllum michauxii. It's a leafy liverwort with bilobed, tranversely inserted leaves. In the lower left, see a gemmiparous shoot. #liverworts #bryophyta #botany
Had a great week in Maine looking at bryophytes du Had a great week in Maine looking at bryophytes during the annual Crum Workshop (which was combined this year with the lichen-centered Tuckerman Workshop). One of the many many mossies spied was this "nut moss," a.k.a. "grain of wheat moss," or "powder gun moss," Diphyscium foliosum, which is very distinctive owing to its capsules that are asymmetric-ovoid shaped, tapered to a very narrow mouth, and surrounded by awl-shaped leaves. The prominent 20th-century bryologist William Steere called it "scared rabbits in the grass." I like that! #botany #bryology #moss
Had a great week in Maine looking at bryophytes du Had a great week in Maine looking at bryophytes during the annual Crum Workshop (which was combined this year with the lichen-centered Tuckerman Workshop). One of the many many mossies spied was this alpine haircap moss, Polytrichastrum alpinum. I passed by it a few times thinking it was either (ho-hum) common haircap (Polytrichum commune) or (yawn) Ohio haircap (Polytrichum ohioense) until my field companion pointed out the roundly cylindric, not 4-angled capsules that clued us in to the corrrect ID. #botany #nature #bryophyte
Had a great week in Maine looking at bryophytes du Had a great week in Maine looking at bryophytes during the annual Crum Workshop (which was combined this year with the lichen-centered Tuckerman Workshop). One of the many many mossies spied was this Wahlenberg's Spur Moss, Brideliella wahlenbergii (formerly Oncophorus wahlenbergii), a narrow-leaved beauty growing on a log in a boggy pond margin. I like the young sporophytes, in the early "spear" stage. #moss #botany #bryology
Yippee! After trying again and again without succe Yippee! After trying again and again without success to relocate "compact feather moss" (Conardia compacta) at a lovely west-central Ohio park featuring damp shaded limestone cliffs, on Saturday I found it. YAY! In the field it looks like one of several stringy carpet mosses, but through the microscope the papillose rhizoidal gemmae on the abaxial costa surfaces (a specialized means of asexual reproduction) render it unmistakable. #moss #bryology #ohio #flora #botany
It was fun exploring the moss flora of the Lake Er It was fun exploring the moss flora of the Lake Erie Islands this weekend with Stone Lab's "Moss Identification and Ecology" Workshop. On Sunday we visited Middle Bass Island, where atop a masonry boat slip we saw this Schistidium (formerly Grimmia). I thought at first it was a rare one, but after careful study decided it's probably just the fairly common Schistidium apocarpum. I love the white hair-points on the leaves! #moss #bryophyte #botany
Looking forward happily to the Moss Identification Looking forward happily to the Moss Identification and Ecology workshop starting tomorrow at Stone Lab, OSU's island laboratory in Lake Erie. Realizing that we are a litle shy in papillose acrocarps (cushion-forming mosses with bumpy leaf cells) I stopped at a roadside adjacent to an abandoned limestone quarry on the way up and found this "twisted moss,"Tortella tortuosa. #bryology #botany #moss
Streamside leptodictyum moss (iNaturalist has some Streamside leptodictyum moss (iNaturalist has some pretty uninspired common names), Leptodyctium riparium, is a carpet moss that shows up on the ground, on woody debris, and the bases of shrubs in swamp forests. It's a carpet moss with fairly narrow leaves and, as shown here, a great many sporophytes that are bigger than you might expect, considering the gametophytes are on the small side. This was seen a week ago in northeastern Ohio's Medina County. #moss
Looking like a baby Thuidium (fern moss) this lime Looking like a baby Thuidium (fern moss) this limestone-loving miniature member of the fern moss family was seen yesterday growing on a rock on the ground in west-central Ohio's Greene County. It's tiny! It's Pelekium pygmaeum. #botany #bryology #plantlife #science #
Hook-beak tufa-moss, Hymenostylium recurvirostrum, Hook-beak tufa-moss, Hymenostylium recurvirostrum, is a tiny cushion moss that grows in extensive dense clumps attached to wet limestone. This was seen yesterday in west-central Ohio's Greene County.
On account of its dingy dark almost greasy aspect, On account of its dingy dark almost greasy aspect, Karl McKnight et. al. in "Common Mosses of the Northeast and Appalachians" calls Platygyrium repens "oil spill moss." It typically grows on bark-free logs in woodlands. This specimen, seen yesterday in a swamp in northeast Ohio's Medina County, is chock full of sporophytes. #moss #botany #bryology #plants
Since I'm not Mick Jagger, I've been merrily gathe Since I'm not Mick Jagger, I've been merrily gathering specimens for the Stone Lab Moss Identification and Ecology workshop, happening in mid-August. This one is wavy-leaf moss, Plagiomnium ciliare, seen (ahem) near a State Forest in southern Ohio's Hocking County. #botany
Ooh ooh! I could take a ride in a flying saucer an Ooh ooh! I could take a ride in a flying saucer and THIS would still be the high point of my summer. Male moss plants! It's the end of July and we are just beginning to notice "algal haircap moss," Pogonatum pensilvanicum, that unusual one with a persistent protonema that does the bulk of the photosynthesis and thus there are just wee little gametophytes springing up from the green felt-like protonema mat, topped by quite substantial sporophytes that are now beginning to grow. ***Next Slide Please***Look closely on the green carpet and there are little (very little--this scene is about 8mm across) male moss plants scattered here and there, each one packed with hot dog-like antheridia! #bryology #botany #moss
Whip fork moss, Orthodicranum (formerly Dicranum) Whip fork moss, Orthodicranum (formerly Dicranum) flagellare, is a moss that is easily recognized by the slender flexible upright branches with reduced leaves. These flagelliform branches break off to form new plants, a means of asexual reproduction. Whip fork moss grows on well-decayed punky wood in forests. This was seen yesterday in central Ohio's Fairfield County. #bryology #botany #plants #moss
Rock pocket moss, Fissidens dubius, as seen throug Rock pocket moss, Fissidens dubius, as seen through a microscope at 40x. The pale border is a diagnostic. This moss was seen a few days ago on a damp shady vertical sandstone wall in central Ohio;s Licking County. #bryophytes
Polytrichum means "many hairs." This sporophyte of Polytrichum means "many hairs." This sporophyte of Ohio haircap moss, Polytrichum ohioense, seen a couple days ago in a central Ohio (USA) woodland makes is clear why it's called that. The calyptra--a cap covering the developing sporangium--is indeed composed of a matted felt of hairs. #moss #botany #plants #bryology
Had a ton of fun today looking at mosses with the Had a ton of fun today looking at mosses with the Licking Land Trust at Blackhand Gorge State Nature Preserve in central Ohio. One of the the prettiest was this bristly haircap moss, Polytrichum piliferum, a distinctive (note the hair-points on the leaves, and how the leaf margins are rolled up) denizen of dry open barren sites. This was atop a sandstone ledge, with Virginia pine and lichens. #botany #bryology
If you or anyone you know might be interested in a If you or anyone you know might be interested in adding moss ID to their botany skill set, please consider this workshop I'm leading next month at Stone Lab, OSU's beautiful island laboratory in Lake Erie.
Had fun showing a new friend some lichens at a dry Had fun showing a new friend some lichens at a dry open shale-strewn spot in central Ohio's Delaware County where a bunch of cladonias grow. There is a group of cup-forming ones in the so-called "Cladonia grayi complex" that, unfortunately, are difficult or impossible to identify without doing thin-layer chromatography, which I don't do (yet). This one, with brown apothecia arising on stalks along the cup margins, stood out. #cladonia #fruticoselichens #lichens
Fern-leaved hook-moss, Cratoneuron filicinum, is a Fern-leaved hook-moss, Cratoneuron filicinum, is a lime-loving wet-site carpet moss with a roughly feathery (pinnate) growth form. This specimen was seen Saturday during the Spring Foray of the Ohio Moss and Lichen Association at Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve in east-central Ohio's Greene County. #moss #botany #plantlife #science #bryology
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