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  Asteraceae : Machaeranthera pinnatifida

  R. Neil Reese

  Machaeranthera pinnatifida is an evergreen, perennial herb usually with numerous, ascending to erect stems, branched above, reaching 5-40 cm in height, with at least the upper 1/3 covered with minutely glandular and short wooly hairs. The simple alternate leaves are oblong to linear subspatulate, 1–6 cm long and 2-10 mm wide, toothed with bristle-tipped teeth or deeply pinnate lobes that are linear and spine-tipped. Inflorescence is a flat-topped cluster of heads, each solitary on a branch tip. Heads are radiate with a hemispheric involucre 6–9 mm long with 5 or 6 series of bracts that are hairy and sticky to the touch, the outer ones green and the inner ones whitish. There are 14 to 60, yellow ray flowers with ligules 4–10 mm long, and 30 to 150 disk flowers with yellow corollas 4–6 mm long. Achenes are about 2 mm long. Spiny goldaster blooms from May through September on open prairies and plains throughout South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Packera cana

  R. Neil Reese

  Packera cana is a perennial herb growing 10-30 cm tall, the stems and leaves densely covered with felt-like hairs giving them a silvery gray color. The leaves are simple and alternate. The rosette of basal leaves and the lowest cauline leaves have long petioles, the blade ovate to lanceolate, 2.5-5 cm long and 1-3 cm wide, with a blunt to rounded tip, and with margins that are entire to slightly toothed. The upper cauline leaves are much reduced. The is a corymbiform cyme with 6-15 heads. Each head has an involucre of 13-21 bracts measuring 5-6 mm in length. There are 8-13 ray flowers, the yellow ligules 7-10 mm long (occasionally absent), surrounding many yellow disk flowers, their corollas with 5 shallow teeth. The cylindrical achenes are about 2 mm long with a pappus of longer white hairs. Woolly groundsel blooms from May through July on open dry plains predominantly in western South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Prenanthes racemosa

  R. Neil Reese

  Prenanthes racemosa is a perennial herb that grows from a fibrous root system with simple erect stems that have milky sap and are 30–150 cm tall. The stems have long, coarse hairs above and no hairs below. The leaves are simple, alternate, with the basal and lower cauline leaves ovate, petiolate, 7–40 cm long and up to 10 cm wide, with entire to toothed margins. The upper leaves becoming lanceolate and sessile. The inflorescence consists of heads arranged in racemes to narrow panicles. The heads with an involucre that is narrowly campanulate, 11–12 mm high, with bracts arranged in 2 rows that are purplish and variously hairy. The outer row of bracts is short, and the inner row is linear-lanceolate with a scarious margin. Each head contains 9-29 white to pink to purple ray flowers, the ligule 7–13 mm long. Fruit is an achene with 8-12 ribs and a pappus of numerous deciduous bristles. Rattlesnake root blooms in August and September in damp open prairies, meadows and along stream banks in eastern and western South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae :Pseudognaphalium macounii

  R. Neil Reese

  Pseudognaphalium macounii is an annual or biennial herb growing from a taproot with stiffly erect stems 30-100 cm tall, with stalked-glandular hairs throughout and the upper most parts covered with white wooly hairs. The simple alternate leaves are 3-10 cm long and 3--13 mm wide, lanceolate to oblanceolate, the margins curled under near the base. The inflorescence is a flat-topped cluster of campanulate heads 5-6 mm tall. The involucre is 4.5-5.5 mm long with bracts in 4--5 series, cream to straw colored. And there are many disk flowers in t series the out slender and the central dozen wider, the corollas white to yellow. The achenes are about 1 mm in length. Macoun’s everlasting blooms from July into October on open slopes, in meadows and floodplains in Lawrence and Pennington Counties in South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Ratibida columnifera

  R. Neil Reese

  Ratibida columnifera is a perennial herb with green stems arising singly or in clusters from a taproot, growing from 30 to 100 cm in height. The stems are hairy and often branched. The simple, alternate leaves are hairy and have many small glands, growing up to 15 cm long and 6 cm wide, deeply pinnately to bipinnately lobed (5-11 lobes), the ultimate segments being linear to oblong and often very unequal. One to a few heads sit atop a long peduncle, with 2 series of reflexed involucral bracts. Each head consists of 4 to 12 drooping, yellow, purplish-red, or purplish-red with yellow bordered ray florets that surround a columnar receptacle that is up to 5 cm long. The column is covered with numerous purplish disk florets, which open starting at the base of the column and moving upward. the achenes are 1.5-3 mm long with short hairs on the inner edge. Prairie coneflower blooms from June to September along roadsides in open prairies and disturbed fields throughout all of South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae Ratibida pinnata

  R Neil Reese

  Ratibida pinnata is a perennial herb with 30-120 cm, simple, hairy stems arising singly or in clusters from a rhizome. The stems can become branched in the region the inflorescence develops. The simple, alternate, petiolate leaves are up to 40 cm long and deeply pinnately divided, with the larger segments pointed and lance-ovate in shape. The margins vary from coarsely toothed to entire and the leaf surfaces are covered with short stiff hairs. The leaves are reduced in size as they ascend the stem becoming bract-like near the top. There are 1 to 12 flower heads at the top of the plant, each at the end of a long peduncle, and having a globular to oblong receptacle 1-2.5 cm tall and 1-2 cm wide, surrounded by 10-14 involucral bracts in 2 series. The heads have up to 15 yellow ray flowers, the ligules 3-6 cm long, spreading to drooping. The numerous greenish purple to brown disk flower’s corollas are 1.3-3 mm long and lack a pappus. The achenes are 2-3 mm in length. Gray-headed coneflower blooms from June through September in prairies and open woodlands on the eastern edge of South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Rudbeckia hirta

  R. Neil Reese

  Rudbeckia hirta is an annual (sometimes biennial or perennial) herb with ascending stem growing 30–100 cm tall. The stems are covered in long, white, stiff, spreading hairs and are generally unbranched or have a few branches in the upper half. The leaves are simple, alternate, petiolate, mostly basal, extremely variable in shape. The lower leaves are oblanceolate, 10–18 cm long and covered by coarse hair. The middle leaves are short petioled, lance-linear and reduced in size. The upper-most leaves are greatly reduced and sessile. The leaf margins are entire o with a few shallow teeth. The inflorescence consist of 1 to a few long-stalked flower heads at the top of the plant and arising from upper leaf axils. The receptacle is up to 2 cm in diameter, hemispheric to ovoid surrounded by hairy, elongated involucral bracts. There are 18-21 yellow to yellow-orange ray flowers with ligules 2-4 cm long, sometimes purplish near their base, surrounding the numerous brown to purplish brown disk flowers. The achenes are four-sided, ~2 mm long and lack a pappus. Black-eyed Susan bloom from May to September, mostly in disturbed prairies, roadsides and waste areas in northeast and southwest South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Solidago canadensis

  R. Neil Reese

  Solidago canadensis is a perennial forb with stems arising singly or in clusters from a rhizome and growing from 0.3 m to 2 m in height. The simple, alternate leaves are 3-nerved, 3-15 cm long and 5-20 mm wide, lance-elliptic: broadest near the middle, tapering to a sharp point at the tip and to a stalkless base. The margins are toothed, especially toward the leaf tips and the undersides of the leaves usually hairy. The inflorescence consists of widely varying shaped panicles of bright yellow heads. Each head has an involucre of 3 – 4 series of yellowish green bracts with a total length o 2-4.5 mm. there are 10-18 ray flowers, the ligules yellow and 1-3 mm long, surrounding 2-8 yellow disk flowers. The achenes are brown, oblong, 1 to 1.5 mm long, with white pappus of short hairs. Canadian goldenrod blooms from July to September in moist to drying open prairies and woodlands throughout South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Solidago mollis

  R. Neil Reese

  Solidago mollis is a perennial herb with a single or clusters of several ascending, grayish green stems arising from a rhizome and growing from 10 to 70 cm tall. There are both basal and alternate cauline leaves, thickish, firm, 3-nerved, elliptic to lanceolate, 3-8 cm long and 1-3 cm wide. The leaves are sessile or nearly so, the margins are subentire to irregularly toothed, and their size is reduced in the upper regions of the stem. The inflorescence is a dense, compact to elongated panicle of yellow heads. The heads have an involucre of overlapping bracts with a total height of 3.5-6 mm, with 6-10 ray flowers, corollas 3-4 mm tall with ligules 1-3mm in length, and 3-8 disk flowers, 2-5 mm tall. The achenes are short ~2 mm and hairy with a pappus of bristles. Velvety goldenrod blooms from July through October on dry or drying open prairies and open woods through South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Symphyotrichum ciliolatum

  R. Neil Reese

  Symphyotrichum ciliolatum is a perennial herb growing from a rhizome or occasionally from a short caudex and reaching 30-100 cm in height. The stems are mostly smoot toward the base and have short hairs towards the upper regions. The lower leaves are alternat, ovate to lanceolate with some of them contracted near the base forming a distinct petiole. The blade is toothed, 8-15 cm long and 2-6 cm wide and somewhat hairy beneath. The inflorescence is a panicle of a few to many heads, generally < 50 but occasionally more than 100. Each head has an involucre that is 5-7 mm tall with overlapping slender bracts that are yellowish white at the base. There are 15-25 ray flowers with blue-purple ligules 7-12 mm long and about 25 reddish purple disk flowers that slightly exceed the pappus. The fruit are flattened achenes, yellowish colored with minutely plumose bristles 3-6 mm long. Lindley’s aster blooms from July through October on rocky moist soils especially in open wooded areas.

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  Asteraceae : Tanacetum vulgare

  R. Neil Reese

  T

  Tanacetum vulgare is a perennial herb with erect, usually smooth stems arising from a branched rhizome, singly or in clusters growing 50–150 cm tall and branching near the top. The plant is strongly scented and has numerous, alternate, twice pinnately divided, fern-like green leaves. The inflorescence consist of numerous (up to 200) heads in a corymbiform cyme. The heads are disk shaped, hemispheric at maturity, 5-10 mm in diameter and surrounded by an involucre of overlapping bracts. The outer yellow disc flowers are tubular and 3-toothed and the inner corollas are 5-toothed. The achenes are 5-sided with a short crown-like pappus. Tansy blooms in July and August in waste places stream banks and flood plains in the eastern and western edges of South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Townsendia exscapa

  R. Neil Reese

  Townsendia escapa is a perennial dwarf growing from a branched caudex, forming small mats. The stems are about 1 cm in height and inconspicuous. The leaves are simple, entire, linear-lanceolate, 1–5 cm long, 2-6 mm wide, with short stiff hairs and appressed hairs on their surfaces. The inflorescence is 1 or more heads, sessile laying among the leaves. The involucre is broadly campanulate, 1-2 cm tall with 4-7 series of bracts. There are 20-40 ray flowers, the ligules 10–22 mm long, white to pink. The yellow disk corollas are 8–10 mm long . The achenes are flattened, 3.5-6 mm long, pubescent and have a long bristly pappus. Townsend’s daisy blooms in early spring (April-May) on open dry plains in southwestern South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Vernonia fasciculata

  R. Neil Reese

  Vernonia fasciculata is a perennial herb from a fibrous rooted base, 60-120 cm tall and unbranched or branched only near the top. The stem is round, hairless, and greenish to reddish purple. The alternate, simple lanceolate leaves are sessile or have very short petioles, 4-15 cm long and 5-45 mm wide. Their margins are toothed, the leaf surfaces are hairless, the lower leaf surface having a prominent central vein, and often small black dots. The inflorescence is a flat-topped cluster of heads with each head has an involucre of overlapping bracts, the inner ones longer than the outer bracts, their pedicels usually slightly pubescent. There are 10-30 magenta disk flowers, the corollas 9-11 mm long, with 5 spreading lobes and a prominent divided style. The achenes are ~3 mm long with a brown to purplish pappus that is about twice as long. Ironweed blooms from July through October in damp prairies and along streambanks throughout South Dakota.

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  Athyriaceae: Athyrium filix-femina

  R. Neil Reese

  Athyrium filix-femina is a deciduous, perennial fern with a short, stout, creeping rhizome that forms dense clumps but does not spread aggressively. The fronds (leaves) are upright to arching, 0.5–1.2 meters tall, and bright green, with a delicate, lacy appearance; each frond is bipinnate to tripinnate (deeply divided), lance-shaped, and tapers at both ends. The leaf stalk (stipe) is grooved and covered with fine brown scales at the base. Leaflets (pinnae) are oblong-lanceolate, with deeply toothed segments; the overall texture is soft and feathery. Both fertile and sterile fronds are similar in appearance. The reproductive structures (sori) are small, curved, and arranged along the veins on the underside of the fronds, each covered by a thin, curved indusium. Reproduction is by spores, which mature from midsummer to early fall. The spores are released from the sori when mature, and the plant relies on wind for spore dispersal. Lady Fern is native and widespread in South Dakota, found in moist woods, streambanks, seeps, and shady canyons—most frequently in the Black Hills, Coteau des Prairies, and other mesic habitats statewide.

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  Balsaminaceae : Impatiens capensis

  R. Neil Reese

  Impatiens capensis an annual herb with simple (occasionally branching), round, hollow stems that are smooth, succulent, pale green to pale reddish green, and somewhat translucent, growing 50-150 cm tall. The alternate, petiolate leaves are ovate to elliptic-ovate, 3-10 cm long and 2-7 cm wide, thin-textured, with rounded teeth. The leaf’s upper surface is green and the lower pale and waxy. The inflorescence consists of small clusters of 1-3 orange flowers, held horizontally on drooping pedicels from the axils of leaves. Each orange to red flower is 2-3 cm long, irregularly conical with upper and lower lips and a 6-9 mm spur that is bent back and parallel to the body. The petals usually have crimson to variously colored spots. The fruit is a 5-celled capsule and the mottled green to brown seeds are 4-5 mm long. When touched, the capsules explode and forcefully eject the seeds. Spotted touch-me-not blooms from May through October in moist woodlands, along streambanks and in marshes in eastern and southwestern South Dakota.

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  Betulaceae: Betula papyrifera

  R. Neil Reese

  Betula papyrifera is a medium to large deciduous tree, reaching 15–25 meters tall, with a shallow, wide-spreading root system and reproducing sexually by seed and vegetatively by stump or root sprouting. The trunk is slender, up to 60 cm in diameter, with thin, white, peeling bark marked by horizontal lenticels and often curling in papery sheets; younger bark may be reddish-brown. Twigs are slender, reddish-brown, and lack hairs. Leaves are alternate, simple, ovate to rhombic, typically 5 to 10 centimeters long and 4 to 8 centimeters wide, with doubly serrate margins and a pointed apex and a rounded or heart-shaped base. Petioles are slender and about 1 to 3 centimeters long. Both leaf surfaces are hairless or sparsely hairy when young, and leaves turn bright yellow in autumn. Flowering occurs in early spring before or as the leaves unfurl. Flowers are borne in separate male and female catkins on the same tree (monoecious). Male catkins are pendulous, cylindrical, and 3 to 8 centimeters long, releasing pollen in early spring before leaf emergence. Female catkins are shorter, erect, and take the growing season to mature. Male flowers have several stamens with pollen-producing anthers; female flowers consist of superior ovaries. Fruits are small winged nutlets (samara-like), clustered in cone-like catkins that open in fall to release seeds. Seeds mature in late summer to fall Paper Birch is native to South Dakota and widespread in moist woods, streambanks, lakeshores, and upland slopes, especially in the Black Hills and northern parts of the state.

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  Betulaceae: Corylus americana

  R Neil Reese

  Corylus americana is a perennial, monoecious shrub that grows, from rhizomes to a height of roughly 2.5- 5 m with a crown spread of 3- 4.5 m. Plants are usually multi-stemmed with long branches that produce a dense spreading shape and form thickets by sending up suckers from the underground rhizomes. The young twigs are hairy-glandular. The petiolate leaves are simple, alternate, the blades ovate, pointed at the tip and rounded or heart shaped at the base, 1-12 cm long, doubly toothed and hairy underneath. Male flowers present in the winter and bloom very early in the spring in long (4-8 cm) cylindrical stalked, whitish catkins having numerous crowded flowers, each having a pair of bracts and 4 stamens. The female flowers emerge before the leaves in ovoid brownish catkins of few flowers, with the red styles becoming visible. The fruit are nuts that are solitary or clustered, each enveloped in expanded leafy bracts. America hazelnut grows in upland forests and thickets along the edge of the coteau des prairies in eastern South Dakota.

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  Betulaceae : Corylus cornuta

  R. Neil Reese

  Corylus cornuta is a perennial, monoecious shrub that grows, from rhizomes to a height of roughly 2.5- 5 m with a crown spread of 3- 4.5 m. Plants are usually multi-stemmed with long branches that produce a dense spreading shape and forming thickets by sending up suckers from the underground rhizomes. The young twigs are usually smooth, sometimes sparsely hairy, but lacking glands. The petiolate leaves are simple, alternate, the blades ovate, pointed at the tip and rounded or heart shaped at the base, 4-10 cm long, doubly toothed and hairy underneath. Male flowers present in the winter and bloom very early in the spring in long (4-8 cm) cylindrical, sessile, whitish catkins having numerous crowded flowers, each having a pair of bracts and 4 stamens. The female flowers emerge before the leaves in ovoid brownish catkins of few flowers, with the red styles becoming visible. The fruit are nuts that are solitary or clustered, each enveloped in bristly bracts, partially connate and forming a long beak. Beaked hazelnut grows in upland forests and thickets in western and northeastern South Dakota.

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  Betulaceae Ostrya virginiana

  R Neil Reese

  Ostrya virginiana is a small deciduous, monoecious, understory tree growing to 15 m in height. The older bark is brown to gray-brown, scaly, rough or shaggy. The younger twigs and branches are smoother and gray, with small lenticels. The leaves have a short hairy petiole, the blades are oblong to ovate with a sharp tip, 5–13 cm long and 4–6 cm wide, with a doubly toothed margin. The upper surface is mostly hairless, while the lower surface is sparsely to moderately hairy. The inflorescence consists of male and female catkins. The male catkins are pendulous, 2–5 cm long and the female catkins are 8–15 mm containing 10–30 flowers. The fruit are small nutlets 3–5 mm long and enclosed in a greenish, papery bracts 10–18 mm long and 8–10 mm wide, resembling hops, that turn brown at maturity. Hop-hornbeam blooms in April and May, with fruit maturing in early summer, growing in upland forests of the Black Hills, and southern and eastern South Dakota.

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  Boraginaceae: Buglossoides arvensis

  R. Neil Reese

  Buglossoides arvensis is an annual or biennial herb with an erect growth form, typically reaching 30–80 cm in height. It has a taproot system and reproduces solely by seed. The stems are branched and densely covered with rough, short hairs, giving a bristly texture. Leaves are alternate, simple, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 3–10 cm long, with entire or slightly toothed margins, and rough, hairy surfaces. Basal leaves are larger and ovate, while cauline leaves are smaller and narrower. Flowering occurs from late spring to early fall. The inflorescence is a scorpioid cyme—a coiled cluster of small, tubular flowers 8–12 mm long, with five fused petals forming a trumpet shape. Flowers are pale blue to violet with darker markings and a hairy throat. Each flower has five sepals, five stamens attached to the corolla, and a single pistil. The fruit is composed of four small nutlets (seeds), maturing in late summer. Native to temperate Europe and Asia, Corn Gromwell has been introduced and naturalized in parts of North America, including South Dakota, where it grows in disturbed fields, roadsides, and agricultural lands, mostly in eastern and central regions.

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  Boraginaceae: Cryptantha celosioides

  R Neil Reese

  Cryptantha celosioides is a biennial or short-lived perennial with 1 to several erect, simple to branched stems, 6–35 cm tall, growing from a caudex and covered with bristly hairs. There are both basal and alternate cauline leaves that are covered with grayish bristly hairs. The basal leaves are petiolate, the blades 1–6 cm long, spatulate to oblanceolate, the tips rounded to obtuse. The cauline leaves are narrower with pointed tips and usually less densely covered with hairs. The inflorescence is a collection of terminal cymes at the branch tips, condensed when young and uncoiling with age. The hairy calyx is 7–10 mm long in fruit and the white corolla is 3–6 mm long, 6–11 mm across the limb, often with a yellow coloring in the throat (fornices). The fruit are 4 ovate nutlets, 3–4 mm long. Buttecandle blooms from May into July in dry pastures and canyons in western South Dakota.

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  Boraginaceae : Lithospermum canescens

  R. Neil Reese

  Lithospermum canescens in a perennial herb from vertical taproot with erect stems, 12-35 cm tall, simple or branched above. The leaves are cauline, often ascending, lanceolate to elliptic, the tips obtuse, 20-55 mm long and 4-11 mm wide, covered with soft grayish white hairs. The inflorescence consists of cymes at the branch tips. The flowers have green sepals 4-17 mm long and a yellow to yellow-orange funnel-shaped corolla 7-18 mm long, 7–14 mm wide at the top, the lobes with entire edges. The fruit are smooth and shiny nutlets 3–4 mm long. Hoary puccoon blooms from April to June on dry prairies and open woods in eastern and southern South Dakota.

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  Boraginaceae : Lithospermum incisum

  R. Neil Reese

  Lithospermum incisum in a perennial herb from a woody branched caudex, with stems prostrate to erect, 5–25 cm long and branched above, with many stiff straight and appressed hairs. The leaves are predominantly cauline, linear to linear-lanceolate with pointed tips, 13-45 mm long and 4-20 mm wide. The inflorescence may have flowers in the upper leaf axils or cymes at the branch tips. The flowers have green sepals 6–9 mm long and a yellow to yellow-orange funnel-shaped corolla 2–4 cm long, 7–12 mm wide at the top, usually with fringed lobes and the style slightly exerted. The fruit are nutlets 3–4 mm long. Fringed puccoon blooms from April to June on dry prairies, open woods and disturbed areas over much of South Dakota.

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  Brassicaceae: Alliaria petiolata

  R Neil Reese

  Alliaria petiolata is a biennial herb with a slender, white taproot with occasional fibrous side roots. In the first year, plants form a basal rosette of kidney- to heart-shaped leaves with scalloped edges, each 5–12 cm wide and attached by long petioles. In the second year, the plant produces an erect, simple or occasionally sparingly branched stem, generally 30–100 cm tall, with sparse, fine pubescence on young stems and leaves. Cauline leaves are alternate, triangular to heart-shaped, coarsely toothed, and decrease in size up the stem. The blades are shiny green, hairless or somewhat hairy. The leaves smell like garlic when crushed. The inflorescences are round clusters of a few to several white flowers. Flowering occurs from April to June, with small, white, four-petaled flowers arranged in terminal racemes. Each flower has 4 sepals (green, 2–3 mm), 4 white petals (5–6 mm, narrowly oblong), 6 stamens (4 long and 2 short), and a single compound pistil with a slender style and capitate stigma. Fruits are slender siliques, 3–6 cm long, linear, and green maturing to brown, containing numerous small, oblong, pale brown seeds (2–3 mm). Garlic mustard is a biennial species introduced to South Dakota and is considered invasive; it inhabits woodlands, forest edges, shaded roadsides, and disturbed soils, and has been reported primarily in the eastern and southeastern regions and along river corridors.

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  Brassicaceae : Arabis glabra

  R Neil Reese

  Arabis glabra is a biennial herb growing from a stout taproot. The stem is erect usually unbranched toward the base and branching near the top, growing from 60 to 120 cm tall. The basal leaves are spatulate to oblanceolate, entire to dentate and 5-12 cm long by 1-3 cm wide. The cauline leaves are sessile, lanceolate, entire to denticulate and variable in size (2-10 cm by 1-3 cm) with smaller leaves toward the top. The small flowers are arrayed in racemes and greenish white to yellow in color. The 4 sepals are membranous 2-5 mm long, rounded to subacuminate. The petals are 2.5-6 mm long . the fruit is a cylindrical silique 5-10 cm long and 0.8-1.3 mm wide, with pedicels that are erect or appressed and 7-18 mm long at maturity. The seeds are in 1-2 rows and are about 1 mm long and 0.15 mm wide. Tower rockcress grows in dry prairies on ledges and the edges of woodlands, blooming in May and June. It is much more common in the western side of South Dakota.