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Ohio Plants

The companion web site to EEOB 2210

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    • WOODY TWIG BIOLOGY
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    • Inflorescences Explained
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    • PLANT FAMILIES
    • 8 ESSAYS
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  • Bryophytes
    • BRYOPHYTE BIOLOGY
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    • FLORISTIC QUALITY ASSESSMENT INDEX
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    • LICHEN BIOLOGY
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  • 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
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  • 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
This narrow-leaved cushion moss has setae (sporoph This narrow-leaved cushion moss has setae (sporophyte stalks) that are yellow, a good sign it's Dicranella heteromalla, a common species in the sandstone-land that is Hocking County in southern Ohio where I saw it a few days ago on a damp rock ledge.
This narrow-leaved cushion moss has setae (sporoph This narrow-leaved cushion moss has setae (sporophyte stalks) that are red so I'm thinking it's Calcidicranella (Dicranella) varia even though that's supposed to be a calciphile and there is only one previous record from the sandstone-land that is Hocking County in southern Ohio where I saw it a few days ago on an eroding roadside embankment. What else could it be?
Frillworts in the genus Fossombronia are liverwort Frillworts in the genus Fossombronia are liverworts that can't seem to make up their minds if they are leafy or thalloid. (They're thalloid, but are ruffled and have lobes that look leaf-like.) They are short-lived annuals that grow on bare disturbed, often recently flooded soil; they produce sporangia, two of which are visible in this photo--one ripe (black) and one unripe (green)--in late summer to fall. This Fossombronia wondraczekii ("acid frillwort") was seen today in a seepy disturbed rural roadside in southern Ohio's Hocking County. #liverworts #marchantaophyta #bryology
The Ohio Moss and Lichen Association's fall foray, The Ohio Moss and Lichen Association's fall foray, held this year at the Arc of Appalachia's Highlands Nature Sanctuary, was a great success thanks to great hospitality and planning by the Arc staff, perfect weather (rain the day BEFORE the foray) and some cool botanical treats. One of them is this somewhat flat (complanate) shiny carpet moss called Taxiphyllum deplanatum. Seen on an exposed tree root in a calcareous woodland at the Kamelands Trail in Highland County, it grows in yellow-green mats with leaves that are closely overlapping. (Eastern hemlock leaf included for scale.) #botany #bryology #moss
The Ohio Moss and Lichen Association's fall foray, The Ohio Moss and Lichen Association's fall foray, held this year at the Arc of Appalachia's Highlands Nature Sanctuary, was a great success thanks to great hospitality and planning by the Arc staff, perfect weather (rain the day BEFORE the foray) and some cool botanical treats. Cliff Run Preserve, in Ross County features a shallow creek flowing over and alongside many limestone rocks that are nicely adorned with this "hyophila moss," Hyophila involuta (family Pottiaceae). When well moistened, the leaves lie flat. Upon drying they curl up into little tubes. See a in the photo below some leaves beginning their curling-up action. #bryology
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
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