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Key E: angiosperm shrubs and subshrubs with basally-disposed leaves

Plantae

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1 Leaves giant, either pinnately compound and > 15 dm long, or palmately divided into numerous segments and > 6 dm wide; [Monocots]
1 Leaves small to giant, simple or 3-foliolate; leaves < 9 dm long and < 2 dm wide (except Agave, with leaves < 20 dm long and < 2.5 dm wide); [Eudicots or Monocots].
  2 Leaves linear-lanceolate, flat or channeled or V-shaped in ×-section, > 3 dm long; flowers 3-merous; rosette shrubs; [Monocots].
    3 Leaves 1-25 cm wide; capsules 25-80 mm long
    3 Leaves 0.4-1 cm wide; capsules 4-8 mm long
  2 Leaves either broader in shape or distinctly fleshy and essentially terete in ×-section, < 2 dm long; flowers 5-merous; rosette subshrubs; [Eudicots].

Key F2: Leaves with 4-many leaflets (poorly developed leaves in some species with only 3 leaflets, but usually leaves elsewhere on the plant with 4 or 5+).

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1 Leaves palmately-pedately 5-foliolate (the lateral 2 leaflets on each side borne on a common Y-shaped stalk).
1 Leaves palmately compound (all the leaflets attached at a single point).
    3 Leaves > 6 dm wide
    3 Leaves < 3 dm wide.
      4 Leaflets with entire margins; [non-natives].
        5 Plants deciduous woody climbers (but not twining, or specialized climbing structures); leaflets usually 5 per leaf (occasionally 3 or 7); flowers maroon-colored, lacking petals but with 3 prominent sepals, the inflorescences axillary
        5 Plants evergreen shrubs or trees (occasionally partially epiphytic); leaflets usually 7-9 per leaf (occasionally 5 or 10); flowers yellowish-green or red, petals present, lacking showy prominent sepals, the inflorescences (most often) terminal
      4 Leaflets with serrate margins; [natives and non-natives].
          6 Stems armed with prickles scattered in the internodes
          6 Stems unarmed or with paired nodal spines.

Key F5: Key to Plantae

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1 Leaves very large, > 10 dm long
1 Leaves small to large, < 10 dm long.
  2 Stems armed with prickles or stipular or nodal spines; leaves often also with prickles.
    3 Leaves with conspicuous leafy stipules, often adnate to the petiole; plant a liana or small to medium shrub; leaves serrate, often sharply and prominently so; leaves not strongly aromatic when fresh, lacking pellucid punctate glands on the surface
    3 Leaves lacking leafy stipules; plant a tree or tall shrub; leaves entire or obscurely crenate or serrate; plant a tree or tall shrub; leaves either strongly aromatic when fresh, with conspicuous pellucid punctate glands or not aromatic and not pellucid-punctate.
      4 Leaves not aromatic when fresh, lacking pellucid punctate glands; leaves never with prickles on the rachis; leaflet apices rounded
      4 Leaves strongly aromatic when fresh, with conspicuous pellucid punctate glands; leaves often with prickles on the rachis; leaflet apices usually acuminate
  2 Stems unarmed (leaflets with spinose margins in some species, or the stem with dense hispid hairs, but these not particularly sharp to the touch).
          6 Plant an upright shrub or tree, not climbing.
             7 Plant a medium or tall tree.
               8 Leaves with stipules; flowers bilaterally symmetrical, papilionaceous, white, cream, or pink; stamens 10; fruit a legume; [collectively widespread in our area]
               8 Leaves without stipules; flowers radially symmetrical, whitish; stamens 5 or 10; fruit a single-seeded drupe; [FL peninsula]
             7 Plant a shrub or small tree to 7 (-10) m tall.
                 9 Leaf > 8 cm long, with 5-many leaflets.
                   10 Flowers bilaterally symmetrical, papilionaceous (reduced in Amorpha to a single petal); stamens 10; fruit a legume; leaves with stipules (stipulate).
                   10 Flowers radially symmetrical, stamens 4-5 (to 10+ in Simarouba); fruit either a drupe (Anacardiaceae, Simaroubaceae), or a 1-3-seeded berry or a samara (Picramniaceae); leaves without stipules (exstipulate).
                       12 Plants with pellucid (translucent) gland dots (usually variously present across vegetative and flowering parts)
                          13 Carpels remaining united, forming a compound fruit (the fruits various)
        5 Leaflets serrate or crenate (sometimes minutely so, look closely).
                            14 Leaflets crenate or crenulate, the teeth rounded and coarse (Cupania) or often inconspicuous or minute.
                              15 Fruit a fleshy berry, red to dark orange at maturity; leaf surfaces often (but not always) with punctate glands; flowers white, solitary or in small fascicles; [uncommon non-native, s. FL]
                              15 Fruit a capsule, drupe, or shizocarp of mericarps, variously colored at maturity; leaf surfaces not glandular-punctate; flowers variously colored, the inflorescence paniculate or thyrsiform; [collectively widespread natives and non-natives, including s. FL].
                                16 Fruit a dehiscent capsule; mid to lower leaflets usually conspicuously alternate along the rachis, the leaflet crenations often coarse; [s. FL only in our area]
                                16 Fruit a drupe or schizocarp of 2-5 samaroid mericarps (these evidently winged); mid to lower leaflets usually opposite or subopposite along the rachis, the crenations often inconspicuous; [collectively widespread].
                                  17 Leaflets with obscure crenations, not as below nor bearing glands; leaf rachis narrowly to conspicuously winged, especially towards the tip; fruit a drupe; plant a shrub or small tree
                                  17 Leaflets (especially the basal and on the basalscopic side) with 1-5 large rounded teeth, each bearing a prominent dark green gland; leaf rachis not winged; fruit a schizocarp, with 2-5 samaroid mericarps; plant a medium to large tree
                                         20 Plant a tree, freely branched; rhizome inner bark not brightly colored; flowers unisexual, the male flowers in catkins, the female flowers solitary or few in a spike, the perianth greenish or tan and inconspicuous; fruit a nut covered by a dehiscent or indehiscent involucre
                                         20 Plant a short shrub, < 1 m tall, little branched; rhizome inner bark of fresh plants bright yellow; flowers bisexual, petals absent, the 5 petaloid sepals maroon; inflorescence a drooping panicle from the base of the new year’s growth; fruit an aggregate of follicles
                                             22 Leaves lacking stipules; flowers cream or yellow; fruit either a drupe or an inflated membranaceous capsule.

Key G2: woody plants with alternate, simple, palmately lobed leaves

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      4 Tendrils branched, leaf-opposed; leaves mostly 5-7-lobed, the margins also serrate or dentate
      4 Tendrils simple (though paired in Smilax in SMILACACEAE), axillary; leaves 3-lobed, the margins entire, serrulate, or prickly.
        5 Leaves longer than wide, entire or prickly-margined; stems usually obviously armed with prickles; flowers 6-merous, greenish, in umbels borne in leaf axils; tendrils stipular, 2 per leaf axil, adnate to the petiole basally
        5 Leaves wider than long, entire or serrulate; stems not armed; flowers 5-merous, blue-purple or yellow, solitary or in small fascicles in leaf axils; tendrils 1 per leaf axil
1 Trees or shrubs.
             7 Leaves > 3 dm long and wide; tree monopodial, with a single, unbranched stem (rarely with a few branches).
               8 Leaf lobes > 15, not sublobed; venation of each lobe parallel; fruit a drupe, with 1 seed; [Monocots]
               8 Leaf lobes < 13, most of these sublobed; venation of each lobe pinnate; fruit either a many-seeded berry or a single-seeded nutlet; [Eudicots].
                 9 Petiole attachment marginal; leaf lobes mostly sublobed; fruit a large berry, with many seeds
                 9 Petiole attachment peltate; leaf lobes not sublobed; fruit an nutlet, single-seeded
             7 Leaves < 3 dm long and wide; tree branching; [Eudicots].
                   10 Leaves 2-lobed (deeply notched at the apex), each lobe separated by the midvein, asymmetrical; [peninsular FL and s. TX]
                   10 Leaves 3-5 (-7) lobed; [collectively widespread].
                     11 Leaf blades (3-) 5 (-7) lobed, to 15 cm wide and long, each lobe finely serrate-crenate (>3 teeth per cm of margin) and rarely with a small sub-lobe; multiple fruit spherical and spiky, consisting of multiple bird-beak-like loculicidal capsules; buds axillary
                     11 Leaves 3 (-5)-lobed, to 35 cm wide and long, each lobe coarsely toothed or sublobed, the teeth or sublobes (at most 1-2 per cm of margin) attenuate-acuminate; multiple fruit spherical and merely rough on the surface, consisting of multiple achenes with tawny bristles; buds infrapetiolar (completely hidden in the swollen petiole base)
                                16 Leaves 10-30 cm long and wide; fruit a berry; inflorescence of solitary to a few flowers, or a raceme

Key M2: monocots with broad leaves

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1 Leaves compound.
  2 Plants herbaceous; leaves palmately 3-foliolate or pedately compound
  2 Plants woody; leaves either palmately divided or pinnately compound into > 20 segments
1 Leaves simple.
    3 Leaves opposite or whorled, cauline.
      4 Leaves opposite; flowers bilaterally symmetrical
      4 Leaves whorled; flowers radially or bilaterally symmetrical.
        5 Plant with 2 or more leaf-bearing nodes (all nodes whorled or some alternate).
          6 Leaves broad, < 2× as long as wide, cordate at the base; flowers unisexual and plants dioecious
          6 Leaves lanceolate, oblanceolate or narrowly elliptic, > 4× as long as wide, cuneate at the base; flowers bisexual and plants hermaphroditic
        5 Plant with a single leaf-bearing node.
             7 Leaves in whorls of 5 or more leaves.
               8 Stem floccose, wiry (and at maturity with a second smaller whorl with usually 3 leaves subtending the flowers); flowers radially symmetrical
               8 Stem glabrous, fleshy, never with a second whorl; flowers bilaterally symmetrical
    3 Leaves alternate, either cauline or basal.
                 9 Inflorescence a spadix (a dense spike of hundreds of flowers, the rachis thickened and somewhat fleshy) subtended by a spathe (a green, white, orange, yellowish-green, or maroon bract) (spathe missing in Orontium)
                 9 Inflorescence otherwise, a raceme, panicle, cyme, umbel, spike, etc., the flowers arrayed in a more diffuse manner, the central rachis not thickened, the inflorescence subtended or not by green or scarious spathes.
                   10 Flowers bilaterally symmetrical or asymmetrical; fertile stamens 1 or 2 (or 5 in MUSACEAE), often with several staminodes present as well; tepals 6.
                     11 Leaf venation parallel; leaves various in size and shape, if > 3 dm long, then < 1 dm wide; perianth often differentiated into a lip and 5 petaloid tepals
                     11 Leaf venation prominently penni-parallel; leaves large, at least some on a plant with blade > 2 dm long.
                              15 Leaves jointed and swollen at the summit of the petiole, forming a pulvinus.
                                16 Plants aquatic (or at least in very wet soils); bracts not persistent; flowers purple; sepals ≤ 3 mm long; [more widely distributed in southeastern coastal plain, including se. FL (T. geniculata)]
                   10 Flowers radially symmetrical (weakly to strongly bilaterally symmetrical in PONTEDERIACEAE); stamens 6 (rarely 3, 4, 5, 9, 12, 15, or 18); tepals usually 6 (rarely 3 or 4), when 6, either undifferentiated (6 or 4 tepals) or differentiated into 3 petals and 3 sepals.
                                    18 Perianth not differentiated, consisting of 6 similarly colored and shaped tepals; flowers strongly to slightly bilaterally symmetrical; inflorescence lacking well-developed spathaceous bracts
                                    18 Perianth differentiated into green sepals and more brightly colored petals; flowers radially symmetrical (or weakly bilaterally symmetrical, as in some Commelina).
                                       19 Ovary superior; fruit a capsule; stamens 6; [plants mainly of uplands (Murdannia and sometimes Commelina of wetlands)]
                                  17 Inflorescence not subtended by spathes, though individual small green bracts sometimes subtending individual flowers.
                                           21 Flowers consisting of white petals and green sepals, with 1-many stamens and 3-many carpels (but not consistently with 9 stamens and 6 carpels); inflorescence a raceme or panicle in whorls of 3, branched; leaf blades flat or terete
                                         20 Gynoecium of 1 pistil; fruit simple, a capsule or berry; inflorescence various, terminal or axillary, but if a raceme or panicle, not with branching in whorls of 3; [upland (or very rarely wetland) plants].
                                                      26 Inflorescence a terminal raceme or panicle; fruit a capsule; tepals white, green, yellowish, or pink; flowers either bisexual (Helonias in HELONIADACEAE), or unisexual and primarily on different plants (dioecious) (Chamaelirium in CHIONOGRAPHIDACEAE), or a mix of bisexual and unisexual staminate flowers (Veratrum in MELANTHIACEAE)
                                                        27 Inflorescence ebracteate, lacking bracts subtending pedicels; flowers bisexual (Helonias) or predominantly unisexual and on different plants (dioecious) (Chamaelirium); tepals pink (Helonias) or white to cream (Chamaelirium).
                                                          28 Flowers white to cream; plants dioecious (individual plants either male or female, with all male flowers or all female flowers)
                                                                   32 Leaves strictly alternate; flowers yellow, white, pink, greenish, or maroon; tepals < 5 cm long; inflorescence either a terminal cluster, raceme, panicle or umbel, or an axillary raceme, cluster or solitary flower.
                                                                     33 Inflorescence either a terminal cluster, raceme, or panicle, or an axillary raceme, cluster or solitary flower; flowers actinomorphic, variously colored (most white or yellow), the tepals < 3.5 cm long (except Uvularia grandiflora).
                                                                       34 Leaves arrayed spirally around an erect, unbranched stem; fruit a septicidal capsule; flowers a mixture of bisexual and unisexual (staminate) on a plant; perianth white, greenish white, or maroon.
                                                                         35 Leaves basally disposed; leaves not at all to slightly plicate, 1-14 cm wide; tepals glabrous, 4-9 mm long, 1-3 mm wide (3-5 mm wide in M. hybridum), with either conspicuous (M. hybridum) or diffuse (M. parviflorum and M. woodii) glands; filaments fused to the basal claw of the tepal
                                                                         35 Leaves cauline; leaves strongly plicate, 6-15 cm wide; tepals pubescent, 8-13 mm long, 3-5 mm wide, with a conspicuous pair of glands near the base of the tepal blade (these sometimes more or less fused); filaments free from the tepals
                                                                       34 Leaves arrayed distichously (2 ranked) along an arching, unbranched or dichotomously (Y-forking) branched stem; fruit a berry or loculicidal capsule; flowers all bisexual; perianth white, pink, or yellow.
                                                                           36 Stems of fertile and sterile individuals simple (never branched); inflorescence a terminal raceme or panicle (Maianthemum) or axillary racemes or clusters of 1-9 flowers (Polygonatum); fruit a berry.
                                                                           36 Stems of fertile individuals branched (always at least bifurcate), but sterile individuals in some genera characteristically unbranched; inflorescence either of 1 (-2) flower(s) borne in a leaf axil (Uvularia, Streptopus), or of (1) 2 (-3) flowers borne terminally opposite the last leaf (Prosartes); fruit a berry or capsule.
                                                                                  39 Stem brown, wiry, puberulent; last 2 leaves (near stem tip) on each branch approximate to one another (sometimes subopposite) and with noticeably oblique bases; flowers and fruits terminal on the branches
                                                                                  39 Stem green, not wiry, glabrous; last 2 leaves (near stem tip) on each branch no closer together than other leaves, with symmetrical bases; flowers (and fruits) either terminal on the branches or solitary and axillary to most leaves.
                                                                                    40 Flowers and fruits in single terminal clusters (sometimes appearing axillary, but still only one cluster per branch of the stem); tepals pale to rich yellow