Flora

Photo by Jim Mason   Common Name: Eastern Red Cedar Scientific Name: Juniperus virginiana Favorite Hobby: Helping birds survive the winter   There is not much green in the winter landscape of the Great Plains. In fact Kansas has only one native evergreen tree. It is called the Eastern Red Cedar. All other native trees in Kansas…

The white bark of the sycamore stands out,even when seen from a distance.   Common Name: Sycamore Scientific Name: Platanus occidentalis A.K.A: American Plane Tree, Buttonwood, Lacewood While walking along a creek bottom in Eastern Kansas on a bright, sunny winter afternoon, your eye is drawn to a large white tree. Initially you think it is…

Common Name: Osage Orange Scientific Name: Maclura pomifera A.K.A.: Hedge, Hedge Apple, Bodark     Osage orange trees are a common sight on the Great Plains today although they were not a widespread member of the prairie community originally. Found primarily in a limited area centered on the Red River valley in southern Oklahoma and northern Texas, they were…

Photo by Bob Gress   Common Name: Eastern Cottonwood Scientific Name: Populus deltoides Awards: State Tree of Kansas (1937) and Nebraska   When the pioneers crossed the Great Plains on the Santa Fe or the Oregon Trail, they often went for a long time without seeing any trees. The prairie was frequently seen as a…

Common Name: Redbud Scientific Nam0e: Cercis canadensis Awards: State Tree of Oklahoma Wichita Arbor Day Tree – 1999 You know that spring has sprung in Kansas when the Redbud trees are in bloom. These attractive members of the legume family light up the hillsides and woodland edges in April with their rose-colored (rarely white) flowers. Their flowers usually…

Common Name: Poison Ivy Scientific Name: Toxicodendron radicans Favorite Habitat: Woodland edge When exploring the woods and fields of the Great Plains, a curious naturalist will usually be on the lookout for dangerous animals such as skunks or venomous snakes, but might not give any thought to the possibility of encountering a dangerous plant. Of course, plants cannot…

Common Name: Coralberry Scientific Name: Symphoricarpos orbiculatus A.K.A.: Buckbrush February is a waiting time on the prairie. Winter is not over with, and occasional dazzling, sunny days with temperatures up into the 50’s tease us with the promise of spring. The landscape is all colored in shades of grey and brown. You may notice a flush of red…

Sedges Carex sp. Sedges are perennial herbs often over-looked or mistaken for grasses. They differ from grasses in that “sedges have edges,” which means the stem is triangular in cross-section, usually with three, well-defined edges seen and felt. Grass stems are round. When viewed from above, a sedge plant has three-ranked leaves, each leaf radiating…