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Ohio Plants

The companion web site to EEOB 2210

  • HOME
  • Trees
  • Winter Botany
    • WOODY TWIG BIOLOGY
    • Twigs to Know
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    • Fern Biology
    • Appalachian Gametophyte Article
  • Inflorescences
    • Inflorescences Explained
    • Photo Gallery Slide Show
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    • 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
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    • LICHEN BIOLOGY
    • LICHENS TO KNOW
  • Franklin County Flora
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  • ONLINE ARCHIVE (SU20)
    • TREES LECTURES
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    • 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.

trematodon

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
"Pouchworts," comprising the genus Calypogeia are "Pouchworts," comprising the genus Calypogeia are our only leafy liverworts with non-lobed leaves that are incubously inserted. This beauty, seen Sunday morning on a damp shady sandstone cliff along East Fork Queer Creek in southern Ohio's Hocking County is Mueller's Pouchwort (Calypogeia muelleriana). Note the lollipop-like structures; these are clusters of asexual gemmae perched atop upward-pointing shoots with reduced leaves. #bryophytes #botany #liverwort
"Bark fissidens," Fissidens subbasilaris, is disti "Bark fissidens," Fissidens subbasilaris, is distinguished by having the costa (mid-nerve of the leaf) obscured by opaque round chlorophyll-containing cells. The plant this leaf belonged to was seen at the base of an eastern hemlock tree a few days ago in southern Ohio USA. #mioss #bryology
Thamnobryum alleghaniense is a large moss with a t Thamnobryum alleghaniense is a large moss with a treelike growth form about which it has been whimsically said "It looks like a stepped-on Climacium." Crum and Anderson, in Mosses of Eastern North America tells us that it can be found "on rocks in wet, shady places, especially on the face of cliffs, often in deep gorges, on limestone or, more often, on acid siliceous cliffs." The dendroid habit and coarsely serrate leaf apices separate it from Rhynchostegium aquaticum, a similar-sized moss that occurs in sumilar situtations. This was seen a week ago on a shady wet cliff in southern Ohio's Fairfield County. #moss #bryology
Once again I've been invited to lead a 3-day moss Once again I've been invited to lead a 3-day moss workshop in August at OSU's Stone Laboratory, located on a beautiful island in Lake Erie. Please consider signing up for it, and/or spread the word. Thanks! #moss #botany
The lichen genus Peltigera consists of large groun The lichen genus Peltigera consists of large ground-dwelling foliose species that are among the roughly 10% of lichens that have a cyanobacterial, not green algal, photobiont. I have a hard time telling the species apart. Because the upper surface of this one seems kind of shiny and not at all tomentose (wooly), I'm guessing it to be Peltigera polydactylon. It was seen yesterday in a glade-like hillside in central Ohio's Franklin County. Note those fingerlike upwardly projecting structures; they are the apothecia, with their spore-producing surface on the backwards-facing side. #lichens
A leaf of Fissidens osmundoides as seen through a A leaf of Fissidens osmundoides as seen through a microscope at 400x, showing the costa (mid-nerve). #bryology
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