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  Poaceae: Brachyelytrum erectum

  R. Neil Reese

  Brachyelytrum erectum is a perennial, tufted grass with a short, fibrous root system and sometimes creeping rhizomes, though it rarely forms dense colonies. The plant has upright to arching, slender stems (culms) that are typically unbranched, growing 40–100 cm tall. Leaf blades are alternate, thin, flat, and softly hairy, 10–30 cm long and 0.5–2 cm wide, tapering to a pointed tip, with margins that may be rough to the touch. The leaf sheath is open, and the ligule is a short fringe of hairs. The inflorescence is a narrow, nodding panicle (spike-like in appearance), 5–15 cm long, with few to several spikelets. Spikelets are one-flowered, about 1–1.5 cm long, with a long, straight or slightly bent awn extending from the lemma. The fruit is a small, brown, dry caryopsis (grain) about 3–5 mm long, maturing in late summer. Bearded Shorthusk is native to South Dakota, generally found in rich, moist to mesic deciduous woods, shaded slopes, and streambanks, especially in the eastern and central regions.

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  Poaceae: Bromus tectorum

  R Neil Reese

  Bromus tectorum is an annual grass with hollow, erect to ascending stems, 20-60 cm tall, with many soft white hairs on the lower leaves and stems and fewer hairs toward the top. The leaf blades are flat, 1-19 cm long and 1-5 mm wide. The ligule is membranous, 2 to 5 mm long, jagged along the top edge. The inflorescence is a panicle, 4-20 cm long, nodding to one side with arching branches. The lower branches have up to 8 spikelets per branch, with the upper usually with only 1 or 2. The pedicellate spikelets are lance-elliptic, 10 to 25 mm long, with a long awn. The spikelets contain 4-7 florets and one or more of the terminal florets may be sterile. The fruit is a 1-seeded grain. Cheatgrass blooms in May and June in disturbed areas throughout South Dakota.

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  Poaceae: Bromus tectorum

  R. Neil Reese

  Bromus tectorum is an annual grass with a fibrous root system that often penetrates deeply into the soil, reproducing solely by seed. The culms (stems) are slender, erect to ascending, and typically 20–70 cm tall, often loosely tufted and branching only at the base. The plant is densely covered in soft, fine hairs, giving it a downy texture throughout. Leaf blades are alternate, linear, 5–20 cm long and 2–5 mm wide, flat or loosely folded, and also softly hairy. Sheaths are open and hairy, with a membranous, notched ligule at the base of each blade. Flowering occurs in the late spring to early summer. The inflorescence is a loose, nodding panicle 7–20 cm long, often purplish at flowering, with slender, drooping branches. Spikelets are 1.5–3 cm long (excluding awns), each with 5–8 florets. Each floret has a lemma with a long, straight awn (10–15 mm) that becomes conspicuously sharp and barbed at maturity. The fruit is a slender, brown caryopsis (grain), maturing in early to mid-summer. Cheatgrass is introduced and invasive in South Dakota, rapidly colonizing disturbed ground, pastures, rangelands, roadsides, and open woods, found statewide but especially abundant in dry, open sites.

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  Poaceae: Cenchrus longispinus

  R Neil Reese

  Cenchrus longispinus is an annual grass with solid culms 20-60 cm tall. Multiple culms can be sprawling, ascending or erect, are smooth, often branching and mostly covered by the sheaths. The stem is often reddish at the base and light green above. The ligule is fringed with short, white hairs, 0.6-1.8 mm long. The sheath is contracted where the blade emerges, open at the front, and sometimes with a few long hairs at the constriction. The alternate leaves , 4-14 cm long, 3-7 mm wide, rough on the upper surface, mostly smooth on the lower, flat, folded lengthwise, or rolled up along the edges. The inflorescence consists of terminal and axillary spike-like clusters of burs, 2.5-10 cm long. Each bur has 30 or more spines of various sizes, the largest ones 3-5 mm long. There are with 2 or 3 spikelets per bur and 2 florets per spikelet, 1 fertile and the second staminate of sterile. The fruit are a single grain per spikelet that are retained within the bur. Sandbur blooms from July into September in disturbed ground throughout South Dakota.

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  Poaceae : Hierochloe hirta

  R. Neil Reese

  Hierochloe hirta is a perennial rhizomatous sod-forming grass with erect, hollow, hairless culms that grow 10 to 70 cm in height. The culms appear early in the spring and large tufts of basal leaves follow. The shiny leaf blades are rolled in the bud and flat at maturity, 10-30 cm long and 2-5 mm wide, with the 2-3 alternate culm leaves being much shorter and somewhat narrower, occasionally with hairs at the collar. The ligule of the culm leaves is membranous and 2-3 mm long. the inflorescence is a 4-9 cm long panicle of 3-floret spikelets, with the 2 lower florets having just stamens and the upper one being perfect. The 3 spikelets are surrounded by 2 bracts (glumes) that are usually membranous, hairless and slightly unequal in length. The bracts subtending the individual florets (lemma and palea) are often hairy. Sweetgrass blooms from May into July in wet meadows, sloughs and marshes in the northeastern and southwestern portions of South Dakota.

  Synonym: Anthoxanthum hirtum

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  Poaceae : Panicum virgatum

  R. Neil Reese

  Panicum virgatum is a rhizomatous perennial clump-forming grass, with multiple, erect hollow culms, that grows to 1.5 m tall. The leaves are all alternate, ascending to droopy, the leaf blades flat to rolled upward, 15-55 cm long and 5-11 mm wide, smooth to hair covered, particularly on the upper surface above the ligule. The ligule is 2-4 mm long consisting of a fringe of hairs on a membranous base. The inflorescence is a very open and diffuse panicle, 20-45 cm long, with slightly compressed, purplish spikelets, containing 1 fertile and 1 often staminate floret, surrounded by unequal bracts (glumes), the smaller 2.3-4 mm long and the larger 3.3-6 mm long, narrowly egg-shaped and tapering to a pointed tip. The glumes spread apart as the flower develops, with the stamens and styles becoming visible. A single grain develops in each spikelet. Switchgrass blooms from July through September in moist lowlands and prairies throughout South Dakota.

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  Poaceae : Phleum pratense

  R. Neil Reese

  Phleum pratense is a tufted perennial grass with smooth, hollow, erect, bulbous-based culms that grow 55-140 cm in height. The leaves are rolled in the bud and flattened at maturity. The blades are 3-27 cm long, up to 8 mm wide and occasionally rough to the touch. The leaf sheaths are open with a membranous ligule, 2-5 mm long, V-shaped at the front, white, and ragged at the top. The inflorescence is a cylindrical spike-like raceme of single-flowered spikelets, 2-25 cm long and < 1 cm wide. Each spikelet has a pair of equal bracts (glumes), 3 to 4 mm long including the awn. The fruit is a single grain, often retained within the glumes. Timothy blooms from late May into early August in pastures, along roadsides and in ditches scattered throughout South Dakota. This species was introduced as a forage grass and has become naturalized in many areas.

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  Poaceae : Schizachyrium scoparium

  R. Neil Reese

  Schizachyrium scoparium is a tuft forming, perennial bunchgrass with short rhizomes and solid, slightly flattened culms that grow to 1 m in height. The leaf bluish colored blades are folded and sometimes rolled under, smooth to hair, especially near the collar, 4-30 cm long and up to 4 mm wide. The usually hairless sheath has a keel and the membranous ligule is fringed and < 2.5 mm long. The flowering culms are many branched, each terminating in a single spicate straight to undulating raceme, 2-6 cm long, the rachis and pedicels hairy. The copper colored spikelets occur in pairs, one sessile and perfect with bracts (glumes) 6-9 mm long, the other pedicellate and usually staminate with glumes 3-6 mm long. Little bluestem blooms from July into October on prairies throughout South Dakota.

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  Poaceae : Sorghastrum nutans

  R. Neil Reese

  Sorghastrum nutans is a perennial bunchgrass from a short rhizome with hollow, erect culms, 0.6-2 m tall, that have hairy nodes. The leaf blades are rolled in the bud and flat at maturity, 5-60 cm long, 3-12 mm wide, with a prominent midrib near the base. The sheath is smooth to hairy, with projections from the collar and joined to the firm, membranous ligule that is 2-7 mm long. The inflorescence is a condensed panicle, 11-27 cm long, bearing perfect spikelets with an associated naked pedicel. The inflorescence branches and pedicels are covered with white hairs. The hairy subequal, 5-8 mm long and brownish colored bracts (glumes) surround 2 florets, one fertile one and one sterile with a long, twisted awn. The anther are exerted, 3-5 mm long. Indian grass blooms from late July into October on open prairies scattered throughout South Dakota.

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  Poaceae : Zizania palustris

  R. Neil Reese

  Zizania palustris is an annual, solitary-stemmed grass that can grow to over 2 m tall. The erect culms are round, hollow and smooth except at the nodes where they can be hairy. There are both basal and alternat leaves on the culm. Early leaves float on the water’s surface. The leaf blades are rolled in the bud and flat at maturity, 5-100 cm long and 5-35 mm wide. The leaf sheaths are open, smooth with hairs at the collar and base, with a membranous ligule 7-20 mm long. the inflorescence is a much-branched panicle, 15-60 cm long, with male (staminate) spikelets below and female (pistilate) spikelets above. The branches are initially erect with the staminate ones spreading or drooping at maturity. The male spikelets are reddish in color, with 6 stamens that are 4-6 mm long. The female spikelets are paler, 12-15 mm long with a terminal awn 2.5-6.5 cm long. Both the staminate and pistilate spikelets lack glumes (bracts). The fruit is a dark, slender cylindrical grain up to 30 mm long and 2 mm wide. Northern wild rice blooms in July and August on the margins of streams lakes and ponds along the eastern and southern borders of South Dakota.

  Synonyms: Zizania aquatica var. interior, Z. interior

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  Polemoniaceae : Phlox pilosa

  R. Neil Reese

  Phlox pilosa is a perennial herb from a stout rootstock, with I-several branching stems with 6-12 nodes, growing 20-75 cm tall, covered with simple and/or glandular hairs. The simple, alternate, sessile leaves are narrowly lance-linear, 30-100 mm long, 3-30 mm wide and hairy, especially along the entire margins and the midvein. The inflorescence is a panicle with up to 100 flowers with pedicels usually les than 10 mm long and covered with glandular hairs. The calyx is 8-15 mm long, the tube and 5 lobes about equal in length and covered with glandular hairs. The white, pink or purple corollas have a tube 8-16 mm long with 5 reflexed oblanceolate to obovate lobes 10-12 mm long and 6-8 mm wide. The style is 3-lobed and 1-3 mm long. the fruit is an ovoid capsule. Prairie phlox blooms from May into July in open woods and meadows in eastern South Dakota.

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  Polygonaceae : Eriogonum annuum

  R. Neil Reese

  Eriogonum annuum is an annual to biennial herb with 1 to a few erect, simple to branched stems, 10-100 cm tall and covered with silver-gray hairs. The plants start with a few, short-lived, simple, oblanceolate basal leaves, 2-5 cm long. The alternate, petiolate cauline leaves appear similar to the basal leaves, with most of them toward the base of the stem. The inflorescence is a terminal cyme, often with smaller cymes at the ends of the lower branches. The open cymes have a helicoid, bi or trichotomous branching pattern. The flowers are subtended by a sessile, membranous, calyx-like involucres that are funnel-shaped, 2.5-3 mm long, with shallow teeth. The perianth is composed of 6 white segments, sometimes with a pinkish tinge, the insides are hairy and the outer members are wider than the inner ones. There are 9 stamens and a 3 styles. The fruit are smooth achenes. Annual wild buckwheat blooms from July into September on dry, open grasslands in western and southern South Dakota.

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  Polygonaceae : Eriogonum flavum

  R. Neil Reese

  Eriogonum flavum is a perennial mat-forming herb from a thick, branched, woody caudex, usually having old leaf bases attached. The oblanceolate, petiolate, basal leaves are crowded, 3-8 cm long, 3-14 mm wide, green to grayish due to hairs on the upper surface and hairy beneath. The flowering stems are leafless, 4-25 cm tall, hairy, with leaf-like bracts subtending a compound umbel inflorescence, that have hairy rays up to 3 cm long. the cymose clusters of flowers are subtended by a few reduced bracts. The flowers have a campanulate involucre that is 4-6 mm long with shallow or lacking lobes. The perianth is 6-merous, 4-6 mm long, yellow to sometimes pink tinged, with hairs on the outside, narrowed to a short pedicel-like base. There are 9 stamens and 3 styles that are all exerted from the perianth. The fruit are elongated achenes with a tuft of hair at the top. Yellow wild buckwheat bloom from May into September on dry plains and ridges in western South Dakota.

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  Polygonaceae : Polygonum amphibium

  R. Neil Reese

  Polygonum amphibium is a rhizomatous perennial herb, with floating, prostrate to erect stems, growing to 2 m in length, often hairless when rooted in water or with hairs when growing on dry land. The simple, alternate leaves are 3-20 cm long, 1-8 cm, wide with entire margins, hairy to smooth surfaces, blunt-tipped or tapered to a point, slightly tapered to rounded at the base, sessile to having long petioles on aquatic forms. At the node there is a sheath that can be brown and papery to forming a green collar around the stem. The inflorescence consist of 1 or 2 spike-like racemes, 5-10 cm long, either long and slender or short and more thimble-shaped depending on whether the plant is aquatic or terrestrial. The flowers have 5 pink tepals, 4-5 mm long, with 8 unequal stamens both included and exerted, and 2 styles. The fruit is a lenticular achene 2.54 mm long. Polygonum amphibium is a variable species, with both terrestrial (var. emersa) and aquatic forms (var. stipulacea) that have been formally recognized. In South Dakota both forms can be found, sometimes in the same location, and are treated here as part of a single complex. Water smartweed blooms from June into September in wet places throughout South Dakota.

  Synonyms: Persicaria amphibia, Polygonum coccineum

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  Polygonaceae : Rumex venosus

  R. Neil Reese

  Rumex venosus is a perennial herb from a branching rhizome with erect, branching, reddish, flowering stems that grow 15–40 cm tall. The simple, alternate, petiolate, cauline leaves are lanceolate to ovate, 3–10 cm long with thick leathery blades that are pointed at the tip. The lower most leaves are generally reduced in size. The inflorescence is a panicle with few branches, becoming showy in fruit. The perfect flowers have 2 whorls of tepals 3-4 mm long at anthesis, with 6 stamens and 1 pistil. The outer 3 tepals remain small, the inner tepals (valves), enlarge with the fruit development, becoming reddish, 20–45 mm long orbicular with a cordate-base and lacking growths (tubercles). The fruit are light brown achenes, 5-7 mm long. Wild begonia blooms from April into July on sandy dunes and riverbanks in southern and western South Dakota.

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  Primulaceae : Dodecatheon pulchellum

  R. Neil Reese

  Dodecatheon pulchellum is a perennial herb growing from white, fibrous roots and having erect flowering stems (scapes) that reach up to 50 cm in height. The simple leaves arise from a woody caudex, forming a basal rosette. The oblanceolate to spatulate leaf blades are gradually tapered into a petiole, 4-25 cm long including the petiole, 1-6 cm wide, with entire margins. The inflorescence is a few to many flowered umbel, subtended by a few bracts < 1.5 cm long, with pedicels 1-5 cm long at flowering. The calyx tube is 2-4 mm long with pointed lobes 2-6 mm long. the yellow and red corolla tube has magenta to lavender, reflexed lobes that are 9-20 mm long. the yellow stamens are inserted opposite the corolla lobes, fully protruding and surrounding the style. The fruit is a many-seeded cylindric to ovoid capsule, 7-17 mm long and 4-7 mm wide. Shootingstars bloom in May and June in moist prairie meadows and open woodlands in western South Dakota.

  Synonym: Primula pauciflora

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  Ranunculaceae: Aconitum columbianum

  R. Neil Reese

  Aconitum columbianum is a perennial herbaceous plant typically growing 30 to 100 centimeters tall with erect, unbranched to sparsely branched stems. Leaves are alternate, deeply palmately lobed, usually with 3 to 5 broad, pointed lobes, 5 to 12 centimeters long excluding petioles, which range from 3 to 8 centimeters long and are slender. Flowering occurs from midsummer to early fall, producing several large, showy flowers arranged in terminal racemes. Each flower measures about 3 to 5 centimeters long, with five sepals—the upper sepal forming a distinctive hood or “helmet” 2 to 3 centimeters long that is typically dark purple to blue, while the lateral sepals are smaller and petal-like, approximately 1 to 1.5 centimeters long. Petals are nectar-producing and hidden within the sepals, generally two petals having elongated nectaries curved beneath the hood, about 1 to 2 centimeters long. The flower contains numerous stamens with slender filaments and small anthers clustered around a superior ovary. The pistil consists of multiple free carpels (apocarpous), each with a single ovule, a short style, and stigma. Fruits develop as a cluster of follicles, each follicle 2 to 3 centimeters long and elongate, opening to release numerous small seeds by late summer. Columbian Monkshood favors moist, shady sites—streambanks, wet meadows, montane forests—at mid to high elevations across western North America, including the Black Hills of South Dakota.

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  Ranunculaceae : Actaea rubra

  R Neil Reese PhD

  Actaea rubra is a perennial herb 50-90 cm tall with a somewhat woody base. Stems usually unbranched, glabrous below and puberulent above. There are 1-3 alternate cauline leaves, pinnate to triternate-pinnate, the largest with a long petiole up to 16 cm long. The leaf blades are 15-35 cm long, the ultimate leaflets are broad and irregularly toothed. The inflorescence is a terminal raceme, 1-3 cm long in flower and up to 10 cm in fruit. The small flowers have 3-5 sepals, 2.4-3.7 mm long and 3-5 (10) white, spatulate petals, < 3.5 mm long, both rapidly lost after the flowers open. Baneberry has numerous stamens and a single pistil. The fruit are red or white 9-16 seeded berries, 7-13 mm in diameter. They bloom in May and June in moist soils in wooded areas along the western and easter borders of South Dakota.

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  Ranunculaceae : Anemone canadensis

  R. Neil Reese

  Anemone canadensis is a perennial herb, which grows 10 cm to 60 cm in height, growing from ascending caudices on long, thin rhizomes. The leaves are basal and mostly long-petioled with 3 to 5 lobes which are sharply toothed. The flowers have 5 (4-6) white, petal-like sepals which are obovate 10–20 mm long by 5–15 mm wide. There are 80-100 yellow stamens surrounding a cluster of pistils. The fruiting body is a cluster of achenes 9-16 mm long by 12-19 mm wide. Meadow anemone blooms from May to July in moist prairies, woodlands and meadows throughout much of South Dakota.

  
  
  

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  Ranunculaceae: Anemone cylindrica

  R. Neil Reese

  Anemone cylindrica is a perennial herbaceous forb that grows from a stout caudex forming clumps. The pubescent stems are upright growing 30–70 cm tall. The leaves cauline are 3-7 lobed 2.5 – 6.5 cm long with petioles from 1-5 cm long. The leaf lobes are jaggedly toothed and pubescent, especially on the bottom. The basal leaves are similarly shaped, 5-14 cm wide with petioles that reach 21 cm in length. The flowers are 1-7 in number 1.5-2 cm in diameter, with 4-6 white sepals and bloom in June and July. There are numerous stamens and a cylindrical arrangement of pistils. In fruit te achenes are arrayed on a cylinder 1.5-3.5 cm long and 7-11 mm wide. The achenes are covered by a wooly white pubescence. Candle anemone can be found throughout South Dakota growing in open prairies and pastures.

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  Ranunculaceae : Aquilegia canadensis

  R Neil Reese

  Aquilegia canadensis is a perennial herb growing 30 to 100 cm tall from a stout caudex. The stems are hollow, smooth to covered with small glandular hairs towards the tops. Stems come from clusters of ternate basal leave and have alternate biternate (occasionally triternate) leaves on the flowering stems. The individual lobes are wedge-shaped and shallowly to deeply lobed. The showy flowers are nodding, regular, 2-5 cm long from tips of the stamens to the ends of the spurs and 1.7-4.3 cm wide. Five rose to dull red colored sepals, 0.9-2 cm long alternate with 5 petals, that are red toward the base and yellowish on the upper parts. The base is formed into a narrow spur that is slightly enlarged at the tip and measure 2-3.6 cm long from the end of the spur to the opening at the upper end. The stamens are numerous and exerted from the corolla. There are 5 carpels that mature into 5 follicles, 1.2-3 cm long with a styler beak that is 0.9-1.8 cm in length and contain several small black seeds. Flowers bloom from April to June. The plants grow in moist soils in wooded areas in several eastern and western counties in South Dakota.

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  Ranunculaceae : Caltha palustris

  R. Neil Reese

  Caltha palustris is a fleshy perennial herb with a fibrous root system and hollow stems that grow from 20 to 80 cm in height. This species has both basal and alternate cauline leaves. The blades are nearly round with a chordate base and toothed margins, 3-12 cm long and 4-15 cm wide, with petioles that can reach 30 cm in length and form a stipule-like sheath at the node. The showy flowers are terminal and axillary, with usually 5-6 yellow petal-like sepals, 1-2.3 cm long. There are no petals, numerous stamens and 5-10 pistils. The fruit are recurved and divergent follicles, 8-17 mm long cand contain many small seeds ~ 2mm in diameter. Marsh marigolds bloom in April and May in wet woods, marshes and bogs, often in standing water, in eastern South Dakota.

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  Ranunculaceae : Clematis ligusticifolia

  R. Neil Reese

  Clematis ligusticifolia is a perennial, somewhat woody vine with smooth to hairy stems that grow several meters in length. The opposite, compound pinnate leaves are petiolate, with 3-7 leaflets that are coarsely toothed, ovate, and 2–6 cm long. The inflorescence consists of many-flowered, axillary panicles, with 4 white, petal-like sepals, 5-13 mm long, lacking petals. The plants are dioecious, with the male (staminate) flowers having numerous stamens, but lacking pistils. The female plants (pistilate) flowers have similar sepals, numerous, full size sterile stamens and multiple pistils. The fruit are hairy achenes, 2-4.5 mm long with plumose styles up to 6 cm long. Western virgin’s bower blooms in July and August and can be found climbing of trees, shrubs and rocks in western South Dakota.

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  Ranunculaceae : Delphinium carolinianum ssp. virescens

  R. Neil Reese

  Delphinium carolinianum ssp. virescens is a perennial herb growing from a fibrous to tuberous root system, with sturdy erect, occasionally branched stems, 25-120 cm tall, usually with simple and glandular hairs throughout. There are both basal and alternate cauline leaves, palmately compound, 7-8 cm long, deeply divided into 5 or more primary sections, each with several linear lobes. The basal leaves have long petioles and are usually gone by flowering, and the cauline leave are smaller with shorter petioles. The inflorescence is a spike-like raceme with 5- 30 zygomorphic flowers. There are 5 white sepals, the uppermost having a spur, 11-20 mm long and the lowest pair 7-16 mm long. the 4 petals are white, the upper pair spurred and the lower pair, cleft, bearded, 4-8 mm long and 3-6 mm wide. There are numerous stamens and 3 carpels. The fruit are 3 divergent follicles about 20 mm long. Prairie larkspur blooms in May and June on prairies and pastures throughout South Dakota.

  Synonym: Delphinium virescens

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  Ranunculaceae : Pulsatilla patens ssp. multifidi

  R Neil Reese

  Pulsatilla patens is a perennial herb, 5-45 cm tall growing from a stout caudex. One to several flower-bearing stems appear early in the spring as the snow melts. A few to several basal leaves emerge after the flowers bloom. The basal leaves have 5-7 lobes, each dissected into many linear to lanceolate segments. There is a whorl of 3 sessile leaves, just below 2-5 cm long, the flower, palmately compound and divided into several narrow segments like the basal leaves. The leaves and stems are densely covered in long silky hairs. A solitary flower, 4-8 cm across, tops a densely hairy stalk, having 5 to 7 blue-violet to white petal-like sepals. The stamens are numerous and yellow in color that surround a light green columnar center. The sepals are pointed at the tip and lined with numerous parallel veins. The fruiting head is 3-6 cm long by 4-8 cm wide. The achenes are 3-6 mm long, spindle-shaped, brown, covered in long white hairs, with the styles becoming pinkish purple feather-like plumes up to 2-3.5 cm long. The plume facilitates dispersal by wind. Pasqueflower blooms from April into June on open prairies throughout South Dakota.

  Synonym: Anemone patens