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Support the Flora of the Southeastern US

2024 has been a banner year for making the best flora we can imagine. We've created:
With financial support from people like you, we are aiming even higher in 2025. Together we can accomplish all this: Vote on our 2025 priorities
  • Add Global Conservation Ranks (GRanks) vote
  • Professional graphic keys (polyclaves) to individual families/genera vote
  • 2 new FloraQuest apps: Florida & Mid-South vote
  • Image overlays highlighting diagnostic characters with arrows vote
  • iNaturalist integration in FloraQuest vote
Write-in vote: vote
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Keyed in multiple places:

Click the number at the start of a key lead to highlight both that lead and its corresponding lead. Click again to show only the two highlighted leads. Click a third time to return to the full key with the selected leads still highlighted.

Key H: woody plants with whorled leaves

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1 Leaves tiny, bract-like, triangular, 6-14 (-17) per node
1 Leaves either needle-like, scale-like, or flattened and large, (2-) 3-4 (-6) per node.
  2 Leaves needle-like or scale-like, terete, angled, or flat in ×-section, < 2 cm long; leaves (2-) 3-4 (-6) per node
  2 Leaves flat, > 3 cm long; leaves (2-) 3 per node; [Eudicots].
    3 Plant a subshrub, < 3 dm tall, with < 10 leaves per stem.
      4 Leaves entire, broadly elliptic; flowers numerous, in a hemispherical head, subtended by 4 large white bracts
      4 Leaves serrate, narrowly ovate or narrowly obovate; flowers (1-) 2-8 in a long-peduncled umbel or corymb, not subtended by bracts
    3 Plant a shrub or tree, > 3 dm tall, with many > 10 leaves per stem.
        5 Leaves toothed, and most leaves also lobed
        5 Leaves entire, not lobed.
          6 Leaves cordate at base; leaves about as long as wide; medium to large tree.
             7 Flowers white to yellow; capsules linear, >10× as long as wide; leaf undersurface with curly simple hairs; nectar glands present in the main vein axils on the undersurface of the leaf (visible from the underside or the upperside in fresh leaves and herbarium specimens as a triangle 1-4 mm on a side)
             7 Flowers lavender; capsules ellipsoid, < 2× as long as wide; leaf undersurface with branched (dendritic or stellate) hairs; nectar glands absent
          6 Leaves cuneate to rounded at base; leaves > 1.5× as long as wide; shrub to small tree.
               8 Leaves rounded at the tip
               8 Leaves acute to acuminate at the tip.
                 9 Leaves lanceolate or oblong-elliptic (> 2.5× as long as wide), the secondary venation not prominent; inflorescences axillary or terminal; flowers pink or white.
                   10 Inflorescences axillary; flowers pink; leaves thin and herbaceous; [native plants of wetlands]
                   10 Inflorescences terminal or axillary; flowers pink or white; leaves thick and leathery; [exotics of uplands or wetlands, persistent or weakly naturalized]
                     11 Fruit berry-like with 2-locular ovaries; flowers white-colored, smaller; inflorescence axillary or pseudo-terminal; leaves opposite to whorled
                     11 Fruit follicles; flowers variously colored, showy and salverform; inflorescence terminal; leaves alternate to whorled (pseudo-whorled)
                 9 Leaves ovate (< 2× as long as wide), the secondary venation prominent and arching-parallel; inflorescences terminal; flowers white, greenish-yellow, red, or orange.
                       12 Flowers in a spherical or hemispherical head; corollas white or greenish-yellow
                       12 Flowers in a monochasial helicoid cyme; corollas red to orange

Key J1: woody plants with opposite, simple, palmately or pinnately lobed leaves

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1 Leaves pinnately lobed.
  2 Leaves harshly scabrous on the upper surface; leaves typically a mix of alternate, opposite, and whorled
  2 Leaves glabrous or glabrescent on the upper surface; leaves strictly opposite
1 Leaves palmately lobed.
    3 Plants climbing by twining; stems with retrorse prickles; foliage scabrous
    3 Plants erect trees or shrubs; stems not prickly; foliage smooth or pubescent, but not scabrous.
      4 Leaves 3-9-lobed, the margins generally serrate or sublobed; fruit either a drupe or a schizocarp of 2 samaroid mericarps (maple “keys”).
        5 Fruit a schizocarp of 2 samaroid mericarps (maple “keys”); stamens (4-) 8 (-12); small to large trees; petioles >1× as long as the leaf blade
        5 Fruit a drupe; stamens 5; shrubs; petioles < ¾× as long as the leaf blade
      4 Leaves 3-lobed, the margins entire; fruit a capsule.
          6 Flowers white to yellow; capsules linear, >10× as long as wide; leaf undersurface with curly simple hairs; nectar glands present in the main vein axils on the undersurface of the leaf (visible from the underside or the upperside in fresh leaves and herbarium specimens)
          6 Flowers lavender; pods ellipsoid, < 2× as long as wide; leaf undersurface with branched (dendritic) stellate hairs; nectar glands absent

Key J5: trees with opposite simple leaves with entire margins

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1 Leaves deciduous (medium to pale green, thin in texture); leaves strictly opposite.
  2 Leaves 10-70 cm wide, cordate or subcordate at the base; flowers 5-merous, bilaterally symmetrical, large (20-70 mm long), the petals connate into a tube; fruit a capsule.
    3 Flowers white to yellow; capsules linear, >10× as long as wide; leaf undersurface with curly simple hairs; nectar glands present in the main vein axils on the undersurface of the leaf (visible from the underside or the upperside in fresh leaves and herbarium specimens as a triangle 1-4 mm on a side)
    3 Flowers lavender; capsules ellipsoid, < 2× as long as wide; leaf undersurface with branched (dendritic or stellate) hairs; nectar glands absent
  2 Leaves 1-12 cm wide, cuneate to rounded at the base; flowers 4-6-merous, radially symmetrical, small to medium (< 25 mm long), the petals either connate into a tube or separate and clawed; fruit a drupe or capsule.
      4 Leaves with prominently parallel-arcing secondary veins; corolla 4-merous, < 8 mm long, white to cream; inflorescence a many-flowered corymb or head; flowers white to cream; fruit a drupe
      4 Leaves with complexly branching secondary and tertiary veins; corolla 5-6-merous, 12-25 mm long, either greenish-yellow and mottled with purple, or white, pink, or purple; inflorescence a few-flowered cyme or many-flowered cymose panicle; fruit a capsule.
        5 Leaves 4-20 cm long, 2.5-12 cm wide; petals connate into a 15-25 mm long tube, either greenish-yellow and mottled with purple; some calyx lobes expanding to 7 cm long and 5 cm wide, petaloid (pink to yellowish); capsule 2-valved; [native, in saturated, boggy seepages and streamheads, se. SC to FL]
        5 Leaves 2.5-7 cm long, 1.5-4 cm wide; petals separate, clawed, 12-20 mm long (including the 6-9 mm long claw), white, pink, or purple; calyx remaining small and sepaloid (3.5-5 mm long); capsule 4-6-valved; [introduced, persistent from planting in upland to moist situations]
1 Leaves evergreen (dark green or gray-green, thick in texture); leaves opposite or subopposite (offset by < 2mm from the opposing leaf).
          6 Mangroves, with one of various adaptations to growing in tidal or near-tidal, saline situations: prominent salt-excreting glands on the petiole (Laguncularia in COMBRETACEAE), or prop roots (Rhizophora in RHIZOPHORACEAE), or abundant pneumatophores (Avicennia in ACANTHACEAE); [FL and less commonly subtropical shores of other, especially Gulf Coast, southeastern states].
             7 Leaves broadly elliptic, light green on both surfaces, rounded to broadly cuneate at the base, rounded and often retuse at the tip; petiole with 2 prominent salt-excreting glands; plants with neither prop-roots from the trunk and branches, nor pneumatophores from the roots
             7 Leaves narrowly elliptic, dark green above, cuneate at the base, acute to obtuse at the tip; petiole without salt glands; plants with either prop-roots from the trunk and branches, or pneumatophores from the roots.
               8 Plants with numerous pneumatophores ascending from the roots and terminating in a blunt tip; leaves gray on the undersurface
               8 Plants with prominent prop-roots descending to the ground from the trunk and branches; leaves light green on the undersurface
          6 Non-mangroves; [collectively widespread].
                 9 Secondary leaf veins relatively few, further branching and reticulating into the tertiary vein structure; [collectively widespread].
                   10 Leaves strictly opposite, blue- or gray-green on both surfaces, suborbicular (about as wide as long), strongly aromatic when fresh
                   10 Leaves opposite or subopposite (offset by < 2mm from the opposing leaf); dark green above, pale green below; oblancolate, elliptic, or ovate (distinctly longer than wide), not aromatic when fresh
                     11 Twigs with spines; leaf venation with 3 primary veins from near the blade base; fruit a spherical berry, 5-12 cm long
                     11 Twigs lacking spines; leaf venation pinnate; fruit an elliptical drupe, < 2.5 cm long
                 9 Secondary leaf veins very many, closely parallel to one another and extending unbranched to the leaf margin.
                       12 Leaves elliptic, widest near the midpoint of the blade, ca. 2× as long as wide; flowers in axillary thyrses; fruit a 1-seeded drupe, 2-4 cm long
                       12 Leaves spatulate, widest towards the broadly rounded tip, ca. 1.2-1.6× as long as wide; flowers terminal on the branches, 1-3; fruit a leathery capsule, (4-) 6-9 (-12)-valved, 5-8 cm long