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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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  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: 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: 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 growing up to 1 m tall, with generally simple, unbranched stems that ate smooth or with a few short hairs. The simple, alternate, petiolate leaves are kidney shaped at the base and become deltoid toward the top, 3-6 cm long and wide with longer petioles at the base and short ones toward the top. The blades are shiny green, hairless or somewhat hairy and the margins are toothed. The leaves smell like garlic when crushed. First year plants consist of a rosette of small round to kidney shaped leaves with scalloped edges. The inflorescences are round clusters of a few to several white flowers. Each flower has 4 small green oblong sepals generally < 5 mm long, 4 white petals 4-8 mm long and 2-3 mm wide forming a cross. The fruit is a linear silique, 4-6 cm long. Garlic mustard blooms from April into June in disturbed areas, along roadsides in and open woods. It is a recent invader in South Dakota being found along the south and eastern borders.

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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.

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  Brassicaceae : Hesperis matronalis

  R. Neil Reese

  Hesperis matronalis is a showy, biennial or short-lived perennial, with upright, branched stems, growing from 50-100 cm in height and having rough spreading hairs. The leaves are simple, alternate, deltoid-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, sessile or with a short petiole, blades growing up to 12 cm long and 3.5 cm wide near the base of the plant and becoming smaller as they ascend the stem. The margins are sharply toothed, the upper leaf surface has simple hairs with branched hairs beneath. First year plants over-winter as an evergreen basal rosette. The inflorescence is a raceme of fragrant 4-merous flowers. The sepals are hairy, greenish, narrowly oblong, and form a slender tube. The petals are pink to bluish purple (occasionally white) 2-2.5 cm long, 2 short and 6 longer stamens and a cylindrical pistil. The fruit is a silique, 5-14 cm long containing many spindle shaped seeds, 3-4 mm long. Dame’s rocket blooms from May through August along roadsides, in thickets and open woods throughout South Dakota.

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  Brassicaceae : Lesquerella ludoviciana

  R. Neil Reese

  Lesquerella ludoviciana is a perennial herb with a few spreading to ascending, densely hairy stems, arising from a simple caudex and growing 15–35 cm in length. Basal leaves 2-6 cm long and 4-10 mm wide. The outer leaves oblanceolate and lying flat, the inner leaves erect, narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate with 4- to 7-rayed stellate hairs, the margins entire to shallowly toothed. The cauline leaves similar but reduced upward. Flowers are in elongating stalks in cluster at the top of the stem, petals, yellow, 6–10 mm long and 2-4 mm wide. Fruit are globose silicles, on pedicels growing 10–16 mm long, 3–4 mm in diameter, often flattened, with 2 to 6 seeds per locule. Bladderpod blooms from April to August on dry prairies, predominantly in western South Dakota.

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  Cactaceae : Opuntia polyacantha

  R. Neil Reese

  Opuntia polyacantha is a prostrate, clump-forming perennial, evergreen shrub, rising only to the height of one stem segment (pad). Each stem segment is orbicular, flattened, bluish green to gray, growing to about 12 cm in diameter. The areoles are crowded, generally < 1 cm apart, with 1-10 spines, 2-5 cm long, and various numbers of glochids on each. The upper areoles have more spines than the lower. The flowers develop along the upper edge of the pads, each 4-7 cm wide with numerous tepals, 25–35 mm long, yellow, pink or red. The fruit is globose to ovoid, 2-4 cm long, dry and spiny. The seeds are tan to white and discoid. Prairie pricklypear blooms in May and June (rarely again in September) on dry plains and pastures, especially in sandy soils, in western South Dakota.

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  Campanulaceae : Campanula rotundifolia

  R. Neil Reese

  Campanula rotundifolia is a perennial, somewhat delicate herb from slender caudex branches, often forming clumps. The stems are ascending to erect, simple or with short branches near the top, 15-70 cm in height and lacking hairs. The basal leaves have long petioles (1-7 cm long), the blades are 1-3 cm long and 0.5-2 cm wide, ovate to orbicular, the margins with small teeth, but are generally withered before flowering. The cauline leaves becoming linear and sessile above, 1–7 cm long and 1-6 mm wide. The Inflorescence is a terminal, few-flowered raceme with nodding flowers. The 5 sepals are narrowly lanceolate, 3–12 mm long, erect and the 5 blue petals are fused, 10–25 mm long, campanulate, with the 3-lobed style about as long as the corolla. The fruit is a top-shaped capsule, nodding, 3–10 mm long and 3-6 mm in diameter. The seeds are brown, shiny and ~1 mm long. Harebells bloom from June through August in dry woods, meadows and along streambanks in western South Dakota.

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  Cannabaceae : Humulus lupulus var. lupuloides

  R. Neil Reese

  Humulus lupulus is a perennial, dioecious vine with green, branched stems that grow to 10 m or more in length and 1-5 mm in diameter. The simple, opposite leaves have long petioles, from 2.5 to 12 cm in length. The blades are ovate, 5-15 cm long and 4-16 cm wide, unlobed or with 3-5 lobes, the lobes with sharply pointed tips. The margins are finely toothed, the upper leaf surface is mostly hairless, the lower surface having soft hairs along the veins and occasionally on the surface, along with the yellow glands that dot the lower surface. Male plants have panicles of flowers, 7-15 cm long and 1.5-5 cm wide, in branching clusters on short peduncles arising from upper leaf axils and at branch tips, each panicle with 20 to 100+ flowers. Each flower has a short pedicel, 5 yellow-green spreading sepals and 5 short stamens. Female plants have 10 to 50 pairs of flowers in 5-10 mm long catkin-like clusters at the tips of peduncles arising from leaf axils and branch tips. The sessile flowers are subtended by green to yellowish bracts, with 2 styles and no petals. The fruit are yellowish achenes that are surrounded by the enlarged bracts that create a cone-like structure 2-5 cm long and 2-3 cm in diameter. The green cone-like fruit ripen to straw-colored and eventually turn brown. Common hops bloom from July to September and are commonly found in moist thickets and deciduous woodlands along drainages in South Dakota.

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  Capparaceae: Cleome serrulata

  R Neil Reese

  Cleome serrulata is an erect, branched annual herb with smooth, waxy, unarmed stems, 20-150 cm tall. The alternate petiolate leaves are compound ternate, the 3 leaflets are entire, narrowly lanceolate, 2-6 cm long and 5-15 mm wide, the tips pointed. The leaves become simple as they approach the inflorescence. The flowers are in dense, many-flowered terminal racemes, subtended by narrow bracts, on pedicels up to 2 cm long. The raceme elongates as the fruit forms, with many flowers blooming in a rounded cluster at the top and fruit forming below. The 4 green to purple sepals are about 3-4 mm long, fused in the lower half, forming a bowl with 4 lobes. The 4 pink to purple (rarely white) petals are 8-12 mm long and constricted at the base (clawed). The 6 stamens are exerted 13-20 mm long. The fruit is an elongated cylindrical capsule, 2-8 cm long, 3-9 mm wide, slightly constricted between the seeds, with a narrow, elongated stalk, 11-23 mm long, and a pointed tip. Rocky Mountain bee plant blooms from June into August on prairies, in open woodlands and disturbed areas in all but the northeastern part of South Dakota.

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  Caprifoliaceae : Symphoricarpos occidentalis

  R. Neil Reese

  Symphoricarpos occidentalis is a woody perennial shrub with spreading, simple to branched stems, 30–100 cm growing from a creeping rhizome and forming large colonies. The younger branches are green to brown with a fine covering of hairs and the older branched have a thin gray bark that often splits, revealing a reddish-brown underlayer. The simple, opposite leaves are ovate, 2-6 cm long and 1-3.5 cm wide, the upper surface is hairless, dark green to blue green, the lower surface paler and usually with short, stiff hairs especially along the veins. The petioles are 2-7 mm long and the leaf margins are usually entire or have several large, blunt teeth. The inflorescence consists of short, narrow spikes of 6 to 20 sessile flowers, terminal or arising from leaf axils near the branch tips. The flowers have a 5-lobed calyx and a campanulate pale pink to nearly white 5-lobed corolla, 4–10 mm long, with the lobes spreading, as long or longer than the tube and often wider than long. The style is 3–8 mm long and the style and stamens are exserted. The fruit is a globose berry-like drupe, 6–9 mm long, containing 2 nutlets, going from green to white and then blackening as it progresses through the winter into the next spring. Western snowberry blooms from June into August in ravines, on open prairies, woods and hillsides throughout South Dakota.

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  Caprifoliaceae : Viburnum lentago

  R. Neil Reese

  Viburnum lentago is a perennial, multi-stemmed tall shrub or small tree, 2-5 m tall and forming colonies from root suckers. Young stems usually have smooth, gray to reddish brown bark, and on older stems the bark becomes dark gray with deeply checkered furrows. The simple, opposite leaves have long winged petioles (10-30 mm) with stellate reddish-brown hairs at the base. The blades are ovate to broadly elliptic, 5-9 cm long and 3-6 cm wide, the tips pointed, the margins finely toothed, the upper surface dark green and shiny and the lower surface paler. The umbel-like inflorescences are 5-12 cm across sessile at the ends of 1-year old branches. Each flower has a tubular calyx with 5 short lobes and a white, bell to saucer shaped, 5-lobed corolla that is 2.5-3.5 mm long. The 5 stamens are exserted from the corolla. The fruit are dark blue-black, flattened, globose drupes, 10-14 mm long, pulpy with a whitish, waxy coating, each containing a large, flat, yellowish seed. Nannyberry blooms in May and June in open woods, along streambanks and occasionally in ditches in the eastern and western counties of South Dakota.

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  Celastraceae : Celastrus scandens

  R. Neil Reese

  Celastrus scandens is a perennial climbing woody vine with twisting stems that reach up to 18 m long. The plants are dioecious, being either male or female, and spread vegetatively by root suckers. The simple, alternate leaves have petioles 1-3 cm long with short stipules (~1 mm). The blades are elliptic to ovate-oblong 3-10 cm long with a pointed tip and the margins are finely toothed. The greenish, unisexual flowers are borne in narrow racemes or panicles which are 3-8 cm long. The flowers are 5-merous with a cup-shaped calyx, 2-3 mm long, united at the base and spreading petals that are 3-6 mm long. Male flowers have 5 stamens, while female flowers have a single 3-parted ovary. Fruit is an orange or yellowish 3-valved capsule, 8-12 mm in diameter, that splits to expose the fleshy bright orange to red aril-covered seeds. There are 1-2 reddish brown seeds in each locule, elliptical in shape and 5-6 mm long. Bittersweet blooms from May to July in woodlands, thickets and along fence rows in much of South Dakota.

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  Celastraceae: Cerastium arvense ssp. strictum

  R Neil Reese

  Cerastium arvense ssp. strictum is a sprawling, mat-forming perennial herb, the flowering stems erect, 5-30 cm tall, with short simple to glandular hairs throughout. The small, simple, opposite, entire leaves are linear to narrowly oblong, 7-30 mm long and 1-5 mm wide on the flowering branches and generally smaller on the sprawling lateral branches. The inflorescence consists of terminal cymes with a 1-20 flowers on pedicels 5-30 mm long that generally curve downward as they age. The 5 green lance-elliptic sepals are 4-6 mm long and covered with glandular hairs. The petals are 1.5 to 2 times as long as the sepals, deeply cleft, white with grayish streaks and a yellowish throat. There are 10 stamens and 5 styles on the ovary. The fruit is initially a globose capsule that becomes cylindrical, 6-10 mm long when ripe. Prairie chickweed blooms from June to August in prairies, pastures and meadows in the northeastern corner and western edge of South Dakota.

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  Chenopodiaceae: Chenopodium berlandieri

  R Neil Reese

  Chenopodium berlandieri is an erect to ascending, unbranched to highly branched herb, mostly < 1 m tall, the stems with green to red to purple stripes and a sparse to dense white-mealy covering, especially on the upper stems. The simple alternate leaves are thick, 2-15 cm long, up to 8 cm wide, variable in shape, diamond-shaped to triangular to oval to lance-elliptic, the tip pointed to blunt, the margins with irregular teeth, the base wedge-shaped to straight, with petioles up to 8 cm long and a white-mealy covering. The lower leaves are largest, irregularly toothed, usually with a pair of shallow lobes near the base. The upper leaves become smaller and less toothy as they ascend the stem, with the uppermost leaves often much narrower and toothless. The inflorescence consists of terminal and axillary panicles of clusters of tiny flowers (glomerules). The flowers have 5 keeled sepals, that are covered with white-mealy dots, and surround the mature fruit. There are 5 stamens and a pistil with 2 styles. The fruit is a dry seed enclosed in the persistent sepals (utricle), arranged horizontally, and having a pitted surface. Pitseed goosefoot blooms from July into September on disturbed, open ground throughout South Dakota.

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  Chenopodiaceae: Chenopodium simplex

  R Neil Reese

  Chenopodium simplex is an erect annual herb. usually having a single stem with spreading branches growing up to 2 m tall. The simple, alternate leaves are thin, triangular to broadly ovate, 7-20 cm long 5-15 cm wide, with 1-5 irregular, large, sharply pointed lobes separated by broad, rounded sinuses. The lower leaves are largest with petioles up to about 2.5 cm long and the upper leaves are usually smaller with shorter petioles. The leaf surfaces are bright green, smooth, sometimes with a sparse, white-mealy covering when young but becoming smooth with age. The inflorescence is a terminal, compact panicle of small clusters of tiny flowers that becomes spread out at maturity. The flowers have 5 sepals, 5 stamens and a pistil with 2 styles. Within a cluster, the flowers may develop at varying rates with some just budding when others have maturing fruit. The fruit are 1-seeded, inflated, lens shaped pods (utricles), 1.5-2.5 mm in diameter. Mapleleaf goosefoot blooms from June into September in sandy and rocky soils in shaded woodlands and disturbed ground throughout much of South Dakota.

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  Commelinaceae : Tradescantia bracteata

  R. Neil Reese

  Tradescantia bracteata is a subsucculent perennial herb with erect to ascending, simple or occasionally branching stems, with 2-4 nodes and growing 5–45 cm tall. The stems can have a zig-zag appearance due to the jointed leaf attachment and multiple stems often emerge from an underground crown. The simple, alternate leaves are green with a whitish waxy coating, linear-lanceolate, 8-30 cm in length and 7-16 mm wide, rarely folded, with sheathing bases and entire margins. The inflorescence is an umbellate cyme of few to many flowers at the top of the stem, and at the ends of branches arising from leaf axils, with only 1 to a few open at a time and subtended by elongated bracts similar to the foliage leaves, 6-30 cm long. Flower pedicels are 2–3 cm long with glandular and non-glandular hairs. The 3 sepals are 10-13 mm long with glandular hairs and purplish margins. The 3 petals are broadly ovate, about 18 mm long and blue to rose-violet in color. The flowers open in the morning and typically wilt by noon. There are 6 stamens with bright yellow anthers and long blue hairs toward the base of the filaments. The fruit is a rounded capsule with three locules, each producing 1- few oblong seeds, 2-4 mm long. Long-bracted spiderwort blooms from May through August, growing on moist disturbed soils throughout South Dakota.

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  Commelinaceae : Tradescantia occidentalis

  R. Neil Reese

  Tradescantia occidentalis is a subsucculent perennial herb with erect, simple or occasionally branching stems, with 2-6 nodes and growing to 60 cm tall. The stems can have a zig-zag appearance due to the jointed leaf attachment. The simple, alternate leaves are green with a whitish waxy coating, linear-lanceolate, 9-33 cm in length and 4-15 mm wide, often folded, with sheathing bases and entire margins. The inflorescence is an umbellate cyme of few to many flowers at the top of the stem, and at the ends of branches arising from leaf axils, with only 1 to a few open at a time and subtended by elongated bracts similar to the foliage leaves, 6-20 cm long. Flower pedicels are 1-2 cm long with glandular hairs. The 3 sepals are 8-13 mm long with glandular hairs and purplish margins. The 3 petals are broadly ovate, 7-15 mm long and blue to rose in color. The flowers open in the morning and typically wilt by noon. There are 6 stamens with bright yellow anthers and long blue hairs toward the base of the filaments. The fruit is a rounded capsule with three locules, each producing 1- few oblong seeds, 2-4 mm long. Prairie spiderwort blooms from May through August, growing on sandy disturbed soils in western and northeastern South Dakota.