Piatt County, Illinois - Chapter 3: Flora of Piatt County, 1883

THE object of this article is to give a list of the plants growing spontaneously in Piatt county. Such a list may be utilized in various ways. To the botanist, it answers the purpose of an elaborate flora, for, having a manual of botany, he can refer from that to the list or the reverse, and so has all the necessary information at his command. It greatly facilitates the study of botany to the beginner, for instead of having to find the place of any species among the two thousand six hundred described in Gray's Manual, covering all the Northern States, he has only to find its place among the few hundred growing in this county. It is also valuable as an index to the character of the region, its soil and capabilities of production. Woods, prairie, high ground and low, each has its peculiar vegetation, which the botanist recognizes at once.

In addition to the bare list, a few notes are given under the more important families, which it is- hoped will increase its interest to the general reader. The common names are also given, when there are any, and the kind of place in which the plant grows.

* Since this is not a scientific work, but only an ordinary one, a strictly scientific manner has not been followed in the printing of the following list of plants. The paragraphs following the name of the order are begun with generic names, while other scientific names in the same paragraph are names of species.

such as the sedges and some genera of composites, and this is regretted, but is unavoidable, owing to the limited time available for making observations and collecting specimens. Additions will be welcome.

Ranunculacese - Crowfoot family. This family is notable for the simplicity of structure of its flowers. The parts are all inserted separately on the receptacle. In many species the corolla is wanting, in which case the calyx is colored like a corolla. The stamens are usually numerous and often the pistils also. A number of our common spring flowers belong here ; also some cultivated species, such as the pseony.

Hepatica. - Acutiloba, DC. (liver-leaf). Woods; common. This is the name under which our form is commonly placed, but there are good evidences that all the forms belong to one species, and H. triloba is probably the oldest name. The acute-lobed form sometimes has five-lobed leaves, but a specimen five-lobed with very rounded lobes has been found in the county.

Thalictrum. - Anemonoides, Michx. (rue-anemone). Woods; common. Dioicum, L. (early meadow-rue). Woods and fields. Purpurascens, L. (purplish meadow-rue). Fields and damp grounds.

Ranunculus. - Aquatilis, L., var. trichophyllus, Chaix. (white water-crowfoot)^ Shallow ponds. Multifidus, Pursh. (yellow water-crowfoot). Shallow ponds. Abortivus, L. (small-flowered crowfoot). Damp grounds and banks of streams; common. Recurvatus, Poir. (hooked crowfoot). Woods; peculiar for its hooked styles. Repens, L. (creeping crowfoot). Damp woods and meadows; common.

Aquilegia. - Canadensis, L. (wild columbine). High banks of the Sangamon; more graceful than the garden columbine (A. vulgaris). It is itself often cultivated.

Actsea. - Alba, Bigel (white baneberry). Hillsides in woods. The red baneberry may also occur, but can hardly be distinguished without the fruit.

Cruciferae - Mustard family. The flowers have four sepals, four petals placed in the form of a cross (whence the family name), six stamens, two of which are shorter than the rest, and a pod divided into two cells by a false partition. The two valves split away and leave the partition. It includes such cultivated plants as the cabbage, turnip, radish, cress and sweet alyssum.

Nasturtium (water-cress). - Sessiliflorum, Nutt. Wet places. Palustre, DC. (marsh cress). Low grounds. Armoracia, Fries (horseradish). Escaped from cultivation.

Silene (catchfly). - Stellata, Ait. (starry campion). Woods. Anthirrhina, L. (sleepy catchfly). Dry prairies and fields. Cerastium. - Nutans, Raf. Damp places.

Malvaceae - Mallow family. This is the family to which the cotton plant belongs. The family is characterized by numerous stamens whose filaments are united into a tube, around the styles and at the base, to the cohering bases of the petals and several to many pistils which form in fruit either a several-celled pod or a collection of one- seeded carpels. The flower is often subtended by an involucre. A number of graceful cultivated plants belong here, and some not so graceful, such as the hollyhock. The family is largely tropical.

Abutilon. - Avicennse, Gtertn. (Indian mallow; velvet-leaf). Cultivated grounds and waste places. "This is the somewhat troublesome weed that is being successfully utilized as a textile plant at Springfield, 111." Several beautiful cultivated plants belong to this genus.

Hibiscus. - Militaris, Cav. (halberd-leaved rose-mallow). Wet places and borders of ponds; not common; a large and showy plant; it does well in cultivation, and is well worth cultivating.

Linum. - Usitatissimtim, L. (common flax). Found springing up from seeds scattered along the railroad at Monticello ; it is also cultivated in this county.

Geraniaceae - Geranium family- The cultivated geraniums belong to the genus Pelargonium of this family. Most of them grow wild at the Cape of Good Hope. The pods of the wild touch-me-not burst at maturity with the slightest touch, like the garden balsam, and often throw their seeds several feet.'

Rhus. - Glabra, L. (smooth sumach). Hillsides, undisturbed fence-rows, etc. Toxicodendron, L. (poison ivy). Woods, thickets, fence corners, etc.; common. The climbing form, var. radicans, grows luxuriantly along the river near Monticello. It has recently been discovered by Prof. T. J. Burrill, of the State University, that bacteria constitute the poisonous property of this plant. They are minute vegetable organisms belonging with the lowest fungi. This plant, with its three leaflets, should not be confounded with the Virginia creeper, which has five.

Celastraceae - Staff-tree family. Remarkable for its brilliant fruit. Celastrus. - Scandens (wax-work ; climbing bitter-sweet). Thickets. Euonymus. - Atropurpurens, Jacq. (burning-bush; waahoo). Rich woods. Americanus, L., var. obovatus, T. & G. (strawberry-bush). River banks.

Acer. - Saccharinum, Wang, (sugar or rock maple). Rich woods, especially on lower grounds. Dasycarpum, Ehrh. (white or silver maple). River banks. This species is commonly called soft maple.

Legumiiiosae - Pulse family. Most plants belonging to this family have compound leaves, a papilionaceous or butterfly-shaped corolla, ten stamens and a single simple pistil. The corolla is composed of five petals. The two in front are usually more or less united and. inclose the stamens and style. They form what is called the keel. The two at the sides are the wings, and the large one at the back is the standard. It incloses all the others in the bud. The filaments of the stamens are either all united or nine united and one free. The fruit is a simple pod or legume, but in a few genera it is jointed. This is a large and important family. It is widely distributed and in some regions the species are much more numerous than with us. There are many in the far west. Of six thousand five hundred species known in the world, the United States has three hundred and fifty, Illinois seventy-three, Piatt county twenty-four. Among plants of this, family cultivated for use or ornament are clover, sweet clover, lucerne, pea, bean, peanut, sweet-pea, Wistaria, sensitive plant.

Desmodium (tick-trefoil). - Remarkable for its jointed pods, which are mostly covered with hooked hairs, and stick tight to the clothing or the hair of animals; whence the name tick-trefoil. Acuminatum, DC. Woods and thickets. Cuspidatum, T. & G. Woods. Paniculatum, DC. Woods, thickets, etc. Illinoense, Gray. Prairies. *

Rosacese - Rose family. This is one of the most important families, because it contains so many fruits. The apple, peach, pear, plum, cherry, strawberry, raspberry, blackberry and others belong here; also many plants cultivated for ornament. The flowers are regular and five-parted ; the numerous stamens are inserted with the petals on the calyx. The fruit is of various kinds, and its morphology is in many cases very interesting. The family as a whole is not near so large as the preceding one, having only about a thousand species, but a larger proportion of them are native here.

Primus. - Americana, Marshall (wild yellow or red plum). Woods and thickets. Virginiana, L. (choke-cherry). Eiver banks. Serotina, Ehrh. (wild black cherry). Woods. This is a large tree ; the preceding species seldom more than a shrub. They may also be distinguished by their leaves, - those of this species having blunt teeth ; those of the preceding, sharp ones.

Potentilla (cinquefoil; five-finger). - Norvegica, L. Open grounds. Canadensis, L. (common cinquefoil or five-finger). Dry soil. Arguta, Pursh. Prairies.

Rosa. - Setigera, Michx. (climbing or prairie rose). Thickets. Lucida, Ehrh (dwarf wild-rose). Hillsides, prairies, etc. Rubiginosa, L. (sweet-brier. Escaped from cultivation.

Cratsegus. - Coccinea, L. (scarlet-fruited thorn). Woods and thickets. Tomentosa, L. (black or' pear- thorn). Woods and thickets. Var. mollis, Gray. Same as the typical form, but more common. This is the species commonly called red-haw. Crus-galli, L. (cockspur-thorn). Woods.

Umbelliferse. - Parsley family. The flowers are in umbels, but in one case the umbel is contracted into a dense head. The majority have perfectly regular compound umbels. The fruit consists of two carpels, each containing a single seed. Each carpel has several oiltubes which contain an aromatic oil. Some of the cultivated species are the carrot, parsnip, anise, dill, caraway. The poison hemlock of classical fame belongs here.

Galium. - Notable for its slender stems and whorled leaves. The number of leaves at a joint varies in different species from four to eight; in most of our species they are narrow. The slender, decumbent stems sometimes reach a length of six feet, and their angles are usually roughened. Aparine, L. (cleavers ; goose-grass).. Moist thickets. Concinnum, T. & G. Rich woods. Trifidum, L. (small bedstraw). Wet places. Triflorum, Michx. (sweet-scented bedstraw). Rich woods. Circsezans, Michx. (wild liquorice). Rich woods.

Composites - Composite family. To this family belong all such flowers as the asters, golden-rods, daisies, sunflowers, thistles and many others. Many flowers are collected together in a head, and, to those who have not studied them, may appear like a single flower. In the sunflower, for instance, each of the parts that appears like a petal is a flower, and each of the parts in the central part or disk is a flower, perfect and complete in itself. The former are called ray flowers ; the latter, disk flowers. The green leaf-like bodies outside of the ray flowers form, not the calyx, but the involucre. Each flower has its calyx, which takes various forms in different species. In the sunflower, it consists of a few teeth ; in beggar-ticks, the teeth are barbed ; in the thistle, dandelion and many others, it is composed of many fine hairs. The calyx is called the pappus. The corolla is usually fine-parted. In the disk flowers it is regular ; in the ray flowers, strap-shaped. Some species, as ironweed and boneset, have no ray flowers ; but in one whole sub-family, that to which the dandelion belongs, the flowers are all strap-shaped. The stamens, five in number, are inserted on the corolla and their anthers united into a tube around the style. The style has two branches. The fruit is a one-celled ovary containing a single erect seed. This is the largest family of flowering plants : it contains about a thousand genera and ten thousand species. In Illinois there are two hundred species. It contains a comparatively small number of directly useful plants, the commonest being lettuce. Many are cultivated for ornament.

Aster (starwort; aster). - Shortii, Boott. Rich woods. Sagittifolius, Willd. Hillsides, etc., in woods. Multiflorus, Ait. Dry soil. Miser, L. Woods, fields, etc.

Erigeron. - Canadense, L. (horse-weed; butter-weed). Cultivated grounds; a common weed. Philadelphicum, L. (common fleabane). Damp grounds. Annuum, Pers. (d;.isy fleabane ; sweet scabious.) Low grounds. Strigosum, Muhl. (daisy fleabanc)- Fields and prairies.

. Solidago (golden-rod). - Latifolia, L. Rich woods. Rigida. Prairies. Riddellii, Frank. Wet grounds. Altissima, L. Copses, borders of fields, etc. Ulrnifolia, Muhl. Banks of streams, etc., in woods. Canadensis, L. Fields, borders of woods, etc. ; common.

Silphium. - Laciniatum, L. (rosin-weed ; compass plant). Prairies. Terebinth inaceum, L. (prairie-dock). Prairies. Integrifolium, Michx. Prairies. Perfoliiitum, L. (cup-plant). Rich alluvial soil.

Rudbeckia (cone-flower). - Laciniata, L. Damp woods, along streams, etc. Subtomentosa, Pursh. Pr.,iries. Triloba, L. Dry soil. Hista, L. Dry soil.

Cirsium (thistle). - Lanceolatum, Scop, (common thistle). Roadsides and open grounds. Discolor, Spreng. Meadows and copses. Altissimum, Spreng. Fields and copses.

Aphyllon. - Uniflorum, T. & G. (one-flowered cancer-root). Woods and prairies, rare; a curious little root-parasite without leaves and bearing single flowers on scapes.

Scrophulariacese - Figwort family. In this family the corolla is almost always irregular, and usually two-lipped. In a few cases there are five perfect stamens, but in the rest there are four in pairs, or only two ; the remainder of the five are often represented by rudiments. In pentstemon there are four perfect stamens and a hairy filament lying in the tube of the corolla like a tongue, whence it is called beard- tongue. The ovary is two-celled, and contains many seeds. The genus gerardia contains some root-parasites, which turn black in drying. The snapdragon and foxglove are cultivated plants of this family.

Veronica. - Virginica, L. (Culver's-root ; Culver's physic). Woods. Peregrina, L. (neckweed ; purslane speedwell). A common weed in cultivated fields. Arvensis, L. (corn speedwell). Fields and waysides.

Gerardia. - Purpurea, L. (purple gerardia). Low grounds. Tennifolia, Vald. (slender gerardia). Hillsides, etc., in open woods. Grandiflora, Benth. Borders of woods. Auricnlata, Michx. Moist prairies.

Verbena. - Hastata, L. (blue vervain). Low ground. Urticifolia, L. (nettleleaved or white vervain). Roadsides. Stricta, Vent, (hoary vervain). Dry roadsides. Bracteosa, Michx. (bracted vervain). Same as the preceding, but less frequent.

Labiatse - Mint family. Plants in this family have square stems and opposite leaves. The flowers have a two-lipped corolla and four stamens in pairs, or only two. The fruit consists of four, little seedlike nutlets surrounding the base of the two-cleft style. The leaves are usually dotted with small glands containing the oil which gives the mints their aromatic odor. The various mints, sage, catnip, horehound, belong to this family.

Pycnanthemum (mountain mint, basil). - Pilosum, Nutt. Dry woods. Lanceolatum, Pursh. Woods and open ground. Linifolium, Pursh. With the last.

Nepeta. - Cataria, L. (catnip). Roadsides and fence corners near dwellings. Physostegia. - Virginica, Benth. (false dragon-head). Moist prairies. Brunei la. - Vulgaris, L. (common self-heal or heal-all). Woods and open ground.

Scutellaria (skullcap). - Versicolor, Nutt. Rich woods. Parvula, Michx. Dry soil. Lateriflora, L. Wet places. Stachys. - Palustris, L. (hedge-nettle). Leonurus. - Cardiaca, L, (mother wort). Fence corners and waste places.

Ipomoea. - Purpurea, Lam. (common morning-glory). Escaped from cultivation, sometimes becoming a troublesome weed in fields. Pandurata, Meyer, (wild potato-vine; man-of-the-earth). River banks.

Cuscuta (dodder.) - Glomerata, Choisy. A leafless yellow-stemmed vine, parasitic on various plants in moist prairies and producing dense clusters of small white flowers.

Asclepiadacese - Milkweed family. Plants of this family have a milky juice, but many other plants have the same ; among them are those of the preceding family, most of the Spurge family, and the subfamily Composite, to which the dandelion belongs.

Asclepias. - Cornuti, Decaisne (common milkweed). Rich ground. Sullivantii, Engelm. Low grounds. Phytolaccoides, Pursh. (poke milkweed). Rich

Fraxinus. - Americana, L. (white ash). Moist woods. Viridis, Michx., f. (green ash). Woods near streams. Sambucifolia, Lam. (black ash). Black Ash swamp.

Rumex. - Britannica, L. (pale dock). Low grounds. Verticillatus. L. (swamp dock). Water or wet places. Crispus, L. (curled dock). Low grounds and waste places. Obtusifolius, L. (bitter dock). Low grounds.

Euphorbiacere - Spurge family. The principal genus is Euphorbia. In that germs, especially, the plants have a milky juice. The flowers have neither corolla nor calyx, and are collected in small clusters surrounded by an involucre, which often resembles a calyx. The stamens and pistils are in separate flowers ; each involucre incloses a number of staminate and one pistillate flowers. Staminate flowers have but a single stamen each ; pistillate flowers have a three-celled ovary which is often raised on a pedicel above the others in fruit. The cultivated " snow-on-the-mountain " is Euphorbia marginata, from the West.

Euphorbia (spurge). - Maculata, L. Fields, roadsides, etc. Hypericifolia, L. Same as the last. Corollata, L. Open grounds and borders of woods. Obtusata, Pur^h. Damp grounds.

Urticacese - Nettle family. This includes four sub-families, the Elm family, Bread-fruit and Fig family, Nettle family proper, and Hemp family. All are represented in Piatt county. The Bread-fruit and Fig family are represented by the mulberry.

Ulinus. - Fulva, Michx. (slippery or red elm). Banks of streams; collected by John Marquiss. Americana, L. (American or white elm). With the last, but more common.

Caryei. - Alba, Nutt. (shell-bark hickory). Dry grounds. Sulcata, Nutt. (western shell-bark hickory). River bottoms. Amara, Nutt. (bitter-nut; swamp hickory). Moist woods.

Quercus. - Alba, L. (white oak). Rich woods. Macrocarpa, Michx. (burroak). Rich soil. Imbricaria, Michx. (laurel oak ; shingle oak). Open woods. Nigra, L. (black-jack oak; barren oak). Barren lands; collected by John Marquiss. Coccinea, Waug. ; var. tinctoria, Gray (yellow-barked oak ; black oak). Both rich and poor soil; collected by John Marquis. Rubra, L. (red oak). Both rich and poor soil ; collected by John Marquiss.

Salix. - Cordata, Muhl. (heart-leaved willow). Wet prairies and along streams. Nigra, Marsh (black willow). Banks of streams. Longifolia, Muhl. (long-leaved willow). Wet places.

Arissema. - Triphyllum,Torr. (Indian turnip; Jack-in-the-pulpit). Rich woods. Dracontium, Schott. (green dragon; dragon-root). Woods along streams.

Liliaceae - Lily family. Plants of this family have regular flowers consisting of a perianth of six sepals, six stamens and a free, threecelled ovary. The divisions of the perianth are all similar except in trillium, which has the outer set green and the inner colored. Among the useful plants of the family are the onion and asparagus.

Cyperaceae - Sedge family. Grass-like plants, distinguished from the true grasses by their solid stems, three-ranked leaves with closed sheaths, and the single scale subtending each flower. Since most of them grow in places more or less wet, their habitats will not be given.

Graminese - Grass family. The grasses are distinguished by their hollow st£ms, leaves in two ranks, and with open sheaths and two scales for each flower. The flowers are arranged in spikelets, each spikelet containing one or more flowers ; each flower has a floral envelope of two scales called palets,' and each spikelet is subtended by two scales called glumes. The grasses form one of the largest families, comprising three thousand eight hundred species. Some, such as the bamboo, are woody. Two woody species grow in Illinois.

Muhlenbergia (drop-seed grass). - Mexicana, Trin. Low grounds. Willdenovii, Trin. Banks in woods. Diffusa, Sehreber (drop-seed, nimble-will). Shady places.

Eragrostis (eragrostis). - Reptans, Nees. Borders of ponds. ^Poaloides, Beauv. Cultivated grounds. Var. Me^astachya, Gray. With the last. Pilosa, Beauv. Roadsides. Frankii, Meyer. River banks and moist places.

Filices - Ferns. The leaves of ferns are called fronds. The stems on which they grow are usually subterranean, but in some foreign species they grow erect and appear above ground, growing to a height of from a few inches to many feet, and thus becoming tree-ferns. Ferns have no flowers, but on the backs or margins of the fronds are formed many minute spore-cases in clusters, and each of these contains many seed-like bodies called |pores, which are too small to be seen with the naked eye. Under proper circumstances a spore will germinate and form on the surface of the ground a heart-shaped leaf-like expansion, a quarter or half inch across. On the under surface of this, organs corresponding to the stamens and pistils of flowers are formed ; they unite their products and form an embryo from which a fern develops like the original one. About two thousand five hundred species of ferns are known in the world, a hundred and fifty of which grow in North America ; thirty-seven in Illinois. Some of the most beautiful ferns in the world, as the maiden-hair and the lady-fern, grow in Piatt county.

Aspidium. - Thelypteris, Swartz (marsh fern). Black Ash swamp. Achrosticoides, Swartz (Christmas- fern). Hillsides and banks in woods; an evergreen species.