Glossary

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The terms listed here are just a drop in the bucket. See the links page for more info on botanical terms.

Flower shape

Regular flowers

Regular flowers are generally round and have petal-like parts (what appears to be a petal isn't always a true petal) of similar size and shape radiating from the center. Icons show the most common number of petal-like parts for a species:

Other shapes

Cluster shape

A cluster is a tightly formed group of flowers. 6 basic shapes are used on this site, though there are many variations of these that you would find in more technical references. For purposes of easy identification, go by what it looks like, even though that may not be technically correct.

Leaf attachment

Leaves are attached to the main stem in a number of different ways and some plants will have more than one type of attachment. For simplicity, I use just the following:

Leaf type

While there are many leaf shapes, only a few basic types are used on this site:

Fruit type

Wetland Indicator Status

The plant list and regional boundaries are maintained by the US Army Corps of Engineers and are primarily used for wetland delineation.

Minnesota is part of 3 different regions: Great Plains (GP), Midwest (MW), and North Central North East (NCNE).

Indicator Status (under natural conditions)

  • Obligate wetland (OBL): almost always (99%+) occurs in wetlands.
  • Facultative wetland (FACW): usually (67-99%) occurs in wetlands, sometimes non-wetlands.
  • Facultative (FAC): more or less equally (34-67%) likely to occur in wetlands and non-wetlands.
  • Facultative upland (FACU): usually (67-99%) occurs in non-wetlands, sometimes wetlands.
  • Upland (UPL): almost always (99%+) occurs in non-wetlands.