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  Website Information and Help

  R. Neil Reese

  This website is designed to help identify plants found growing wild in South Dakota and to promote the use of native species in urban and rural landscapes. The plants on this website are arranged by form: 1. non-flowering, non-seed producing plants (ferns and horsetails), 2. Flowering herbaceous species, 3. Grasses, sedges and rushes, and 4. Trees, shrubs and woody vines. Each section has the families arranged alphabetically. Each entry describes a plant and provides information on its uses and, if it is a native species, information on how to collect seeds and propagate the plant for your personal use.

  This entry also includes aids to identifying the families of flowering herbaceous plants and the genera of Asteraceae (the sunflower family). In addition, there are entries defining some of the terms used in the plant descriptions.

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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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  Dennstaedtiaceae: Pteridium aquilinum

  R. Neil Reese

  Pteridium aquilinum is a long-lived, perennial, herbaceous geophytic fern that reproduces entirely via spores rather than flowers or seeds, absorbing nutrients through a fibrous root system anchored by extensive, deeply burying, creeping, scaly, brown-black rhizomes that can grow several meters long. The plant commonly reaches a height of 0.3 to 1.3 m, though it can exceptionally grow up to 3 m tall under optimal forest conditions. It lacks a true aboveground stem; instead, solitary, upright, smooth, and grooved stipes (leaf stalks) emerge directly from the subterranean rhizomes, changing in color from green or red maroon to deep brown by late season. Fronds exhibit an alternate leaf insertion and are large, coarse, and compound—specifically bi- to tri-pinnately divided into a distinct triangular shape held nearly horizontally. The leaflets (pinnules) are dark green, varying heavily in size by mature position but often possessing oblong or lanceolate shapes with distinct, inrolled margins. The upper surface features a smooth, somewhat leathery texture while the lower surface is frequently covered in fine, pale, appressed hairs along the veins. A distinct petiole (stipe) is always present and typically equals or exceeds the length of the blade itself. It possesses no flowers or traditional fruits. Its reproductive units consist of microscopic, trilete, tetrahedral-globose spores measuring 23–35 μm housed inside marginal sori which are continuous along the underrolled edges of the leaflets and mature from July through September. The bracken fern is native to South Dakota, where it can be found primarily in the Black Hills region inhabiting dry upland woods, woodland openings, old fields, thickets, and areas characterized by heavily disturbed or post-burn soils.

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  Equisetaceae: Equisetum arvense

  R. Neil Reese

  Equisetum arvense is a perennial, herbaceous vascular plant belonging to the family Equisetaceae. It has a complex root system composed of extensive rhizomes that facilitate vigorous asexual reproduction and spread. The plant produces separate fertile and sterile shoots. Sterile stems are green, photosynthetic, hollow, jointed, and rough-textured due to silica deposits; they are branched or unbranched, typically 30–60 cm tall. Fertile stems appear earlier, are unbranched, pale tan to brownish, and bear spores in cone-like sporangia (strobili) at their tips, 5–10 cm long. Leaves are reduced to small scales fused into sheaths at the stem joints. The plant reproduces via spores rather than seeds. Fertile shoots emerge in early spring, and sterile shoots develop afterward. Spores are produced in spring, and the plant continues vegetative growth throughout the growing season. Field horsetail is native to South Dakota, found in moist to wet habitats such as riverbanks, ditches, wet meadows, and disturbed wetlands, with broad statewide distribution.

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  Equisetaceae : Equisetum hyemale

  R Neil Reese

  Equisetum hyemale is a non-flowering, rhizomatous, evergreen perennial, the stems growing to 2 m in height, generally clustered often forming dense stands. The dark green stems are rigid, rough, hollow, vertically ridged and jointed at each node. The nodes are marked by a whorl of tiny, clasping fused ash gray tooth-like leaves tipped in black and a black band. Teeth are usually shed during the growing season. Sterile and fertile stems are alike in this species, with some stem tips bearing a cone-like fruiting head, 5-25 mm long, which produces numerous minute spherical spores. These sporangia develop from April to October. Scouring rush occurs in wet woods, moist hillsides and peripheries of water bodies in the eastern and western peripheries of South Dakota.

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  Equisetaceae: Equisetum laevigatum

  R. Neil Reese

  Equisetum laevigatum is a perennial, herbaceous vascular plant reproducing primarily via an extensive system of underground rhizomes, allowing vigorous asexual spread. The plant produces green, hollow, jointed, and unbranched sterile stems that are smooth (hence “laevigatum”), typically 30–90 cm tall, with silica deposits giving them a rough texture to the touch. Fertile stems, which are separate, arise in early spring and bear sporangia in cone-like strobili at their tips. Leaves are reduced to small, fused sheaths at stem nodes, and true leaves are absent. Smooth horsetail does not flower but reproduces sexually by spores, produced in fertile cones during early spring. Sterile shoots emerge after the fertile ones and photosynthesize throughout the growing season. Smooth horsetail is native to South Dakota, inhabiting moist to wet areas such as riverbanks, floodplains, wet meadows, and ditches, with distribution statewide, especially in eastern and central regions.

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  Agavaceae : Yucca glauca

  R. Neil Reese

  Yucca glauca is an acaulescent, semi-woody perennial plant arising from a thick underground caudex, growing singly or in clumps. The green leaves are simple, waxy, flat to rolled 40-70 cm long and 0.5-1.5 cm wide, with margins that are greenish white and becoming fibrous. The inflorescence is a raceme on a long stalk 1-1.5 m tall, usually simple but occasionally branched. The flowers are globose to campanulate with 6 thick perianth segments that look similar, greenish white and tinged with purple, 3.5-5.5 cm long and 2.3-3 cm wide. The stamens are 1-2 cm long and the 3-parted pistil has styles 8-12 mm long atop ovaries that are 3-3.5 cm in length. The fruit is a capsule 4.5-6 cm long and contains numerous seeds that are 7-10 mm in diameter. Yucca blooms in May, June and July on plains, prairies and occasionally in open coniferous forests in the western and southern portions of South Dakota.

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  Alismataceae : Sagittaria cuneata

  R. Neil Reese

  Sagittaria cuneata is a perennial aquatic herb growing from a white corm. The leaves are variable in shape and can be submerged, floating or emersed from the water, with many of them being arrow shaped. The submerged parts of the plant look different from those growing above the surface or on land. Petioles of emersed leaves are 3-50 cm long while those of floating leaves may reach 100 cm. The blades of the leaves are 5-20 cm long with two smaller, pointed lobes opposite the larger tip that makes up half or more of the leaf length. The plant is monoecious, bearing both male and female flowers. The inflorescence rises above the surface of the water on a triangular peduncle 10–50 cm long; a raceme made up of 2–10 whorls of flowers, the lowest node bearing female flowers and upper ones bearing male flowers. Each flower is up to 2.5 mm in diameter with 3 recurved sepal 4-9 mm long and white petals that are about twice the length of the sepals. The fruit are achenes attached to fruiting heads that are 0.8 to 1.5 cm wide. Arrowhead blooms from June through September in ponds, lake shores and streamside throughout South Dakota.

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  Apiaceae: Cicuta maculata

  R Neil Reese

  Cicuta maculata is a rhizomatous perennial herb with a hollow erect stem that can reach a height of 2 meters. The base of the stem is swollen, containing several chambers separated by well-developed transverse partitions, and usually mottled with purple blotches. The alternate compound bi to tripinnate leaves may be up to 40 cm long and are made up of lance-shaped, pointed, serrated leaflets. Each shiny green leaflet is 2 to 10 cm long. The inflorescences of loose compound umbels are attached to terminal and lateral branches on peduncles that exceed the leaves. The white flowers are similar in appearance to other species in the carrot family. The fruit is an oval, flattened 3-4 mm schizocarp that turns tan-brown when mature. Water hemlock flowers from July through September in wet meadows, roadside ditches, pond margins, open marshes, and freshwater swamps throughout South Dakota.

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  Apiaceae : Daucus carota

  R. Neil Reese

  Daucus carota is an introduced, somewhat variable, biennial herb with slender to course solitary stems that are usually branched and between 30 and 120 cm tall. The stems can be smooth to roughly hairy. The alternate, compound leaves are tripinnate, finely divided with an overall triangular shape and 5–15 cm long. The ultimate divisions are linear to lanceolate, 2-12 mm long. The inflorescence is a compound umbel on a long (7-50 cm) peduncle with the umbellets attached by unequal rays 3-7.5 cm long. The flowers are small and dull white and usually have a pinkish to purple flower in the center of each of the umbellets. As the seeds develop, the umbel curls up at the edges, becoming more congested, with a concave surface. The fruits are small schizocarps 3-4 mm long and 2 mm wide and bristly. The dried umbels detach from the plant and become tumbleweeds. Queen Anne’s lace blooms from late April through June along roadsides and in waste places in South Dakota.

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  Apiaceae : Heracleum maximum

  R. Neil Reese

  Heracleum maximum is a tall perennial herb reaching heights of 3 m, with hollow stems that are densely hairy , erect, with few to many branches. The lower compound leaves are ternate and softly hairy, with fine sharp teeth along the margins, very large, 20-50 cm long and equally as wide, becoming smaller as they ascend the stem. The leaflets are ovate 15-40 cm long and 10-35 cm wide, cordate with petioles 10-40 cm long. The end leaflet is largest and lobed in 3 parts; each lobe may be further divided. Leaf attachment is alternate, and the petioles clasping and sheathed. The inflorescence is a compound umbel that can reach 30 cm in diameter, flat-topped or rounded, composed of small white flowers. Individual flowers are about 6mm across with 5 white petals that are notched at the tip, the outer flowers being much larger than the inner ones. There are 5 white tipped stamens. A plant may have few to many flower clusters growing from the tips of branching stems and arising from the upper leaf axils. The fruit are schizocarps 8-12 mm long and 6-9 mm wide, strongly flattened dorsally. Cow parsnip flowers in May, June and July in moist woods, along streams and in thickets in both eastern and western South Dakota.

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  Apiaceae: Lomatium cous

  R. Neil Reese

  Lomatium cous is a long-lived perennial, low-growing, non-woody, herbaceous plant that develops from a deeply buried, subglobose to elongated, starchy, thickened globose root or tuber-like caudex, devoid of rhizomes. The plant reaches a mature height of 10 to 25 cm. It is largely subacaulescent or acaulescent, meaning the true above-ground stems are virtually absent, reduced to minimal structures measuring 2 to 10 cm long, and are enveloped at the base by a weathered thatch of fibrous sheaths. Leaf insertion is entirely basal, forming an airy, low-spreading rosette. The compound leaves are green to glaucous blue-green, 5 to 15 cm long, and multiply pinnately dissected three times into small, crowded, oval or oblong ultimate leaflets measuring 2 to 5 mm long. Both upper and lower leaf surfaces are smooth, glabrous, or slightly papillate, and the leaf possesses a distinct, expanded basal petiole that sheaths the stem. Flowering occurs between April and July. The inflorescence is a compound umbel consisting of several separated flower clusters borne on naked peduncles spanning 5 to 15 cm across. True sepals are absent or reduced to microscopic, indistinguishable green teeth surrounding the inferior ovary. The corolla contains 5 free petals that are bright yellow to pale yellow, oblanceolate, small (under 1.5 mm long), and exhibit strongly inrolled tips. Contained within each small flower are 5 free stamens featuring slender, pale yellow filaments and yellow anthers that extend outward past the petals. There is 1 inferior pistil with 2 distinct carpels, featuring 2 short, thread-like, divergent styles and tiny, terminal stigmas. The fruit is a flattened, dry schizocarp that is oblong to broadly elliptic, 5 to 12 mm long, and 3 to 5 mm wide with broad, thin lateral wings. It matures to a roughened or smooth dark tan to brown color between June and September. Cous biscuitroot is native to South Dakota, where it is found sparsely across the dry, open rocky grasslands, fellfields, ridges, and sagebrush steppe communities of the westernmost counties.

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  Apiaceae : Lomatium foeniculaceum

  R. Neil Reese

  Lomatium foeniculaceum is a perennial herb growing from a thickened or swollen taproot, either acaulescent or with a short stem. The alternate, pinnately compound leaves have blades up to 30 cm long and are intricately divided into many small, narrow linear segments 1-7mm long and 1 mm wide. The petioles are 3-15 cm long with a surrounding purplish sheath to about the middle. The inflorescence is a loose cluster of compound umbels on peduncles up to 30 cm long that exceed the leaves. The tiny flowers are yellow, and the ovaries are hairy. The fruit are oblong schizocarps 5-12 mm long and 4-8 mm wide. Desert biscuitroot blooms from march to June on rocky prairie hilltops, slopes and open dry prairies, mainly in western and central South Dakota.

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  Apiaceae : Lomatium macrocarpum

  R. Neil Reese

  Lomatium macrocarpum is a highly variable spreading or erect perennial herb growing from an elongated swollen taproot. The flowering stems are often branched, growing 20 to 50 cm tall. The alternate compound ternately pinnate leaves are clustered near the plant base. The hairy, gray-green leaves grow to about 24 cm in length with the ultimate divisions being oblong to linear and about 8 mm long by 2 mm wide. The inflorescences are compound umbels on 1-several spreading or ascending peduncles 10-20 cm long, and 2-8 mm wide, with white to purplish white to yellowish flowers. The fruit are 9-20 mm long schizocarps that are 2-8 mm wide. Big seed biscuitroot blooms in May and June on rocky hills and prairies and clay flats in western South Dakota.

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  Apiaceae: Osmorhiza berteroi

  R. Neil Reese

  Osmorhiza berteroi is a perennial, caulescent herbaceous forb developing from a well-developed, thick, clustered, fleshy taproot system that exudes a distinct licorice or anise scent. The plant reaches a mature height of 30 to 120 cm. The stems are erect, solitary to few (typically 1 to 3), branched above, and vary from nearly glabrous to finely covered in short, spreading hairs. Leaf insertion is alternate, though several long-petioled leaves form a prominent basal cluster while only 1 to 3 leaves are positioned along the upper stem. The leaves are thin, light to medium green, and ternate-pinnate or biternate (twice-compound) into 3 to 9 main leaflets. The entire leaf blade spans 4 to 20 cm in width. Leaflets are broadly ovate to lanceolate, 2 to 8 cm long, and 1 to 5.5 cm wide, featuring coarsely toothed, serrate, or deeply incised margins. The leaf surfaces are sparsely hairy along the prominent veins on the lower surface and mostly glabrous on the upper surface. Petioles are present and elongated on basal leaves, measuring 5 to 16 cm long, but become dramatically reduced to sub-sessile sheaths on the cauline leaves. Flowering occurs from April to July. The inflorescence is a loose, compound umbel elevated on a long peduncle measuring 5 to 25 cm. Each umbel produces 3 to 8 spreading-ascending rays that are 2 to 12 cm long. The calyx (sepals) are completely absent. The corolla is composed of 5 minute, free, distinct petals that are greenish white to pure white, obovate in shape, and feature narrowed, inwardly curved tips. There are 5 distinct stamens with short, delicate white filaments capped by tiny, pale yellow to white anthers. The gynoecium features an inferior ovary topped by a small, conic style-bearing platform supporting 2 very short styles measuring less than 1 mm in length, each ending in a minute, simple stigma. The fruit is a dry, side-to-side compressed schizocarp that splits into 2 linear-fusiform or club-shaped mericarps measuring 12 to 25 mm in length. The fruit features a long, tapering tail-like base (2 to 8.5 mm long) and a beak-like tip; its prominent ribs are covered with upward-pointing, stiff, Velcro-like bristles. The fruit remains a dark green during development and dries to a black or dark brownish-black color when it reaches maturity between late July and September. Mountain sweet cicely is native to South Dakota. Within the state, its distribution is concentrated in the western montane region, specifically throughout the mesic understories, rich ravines, and damp canyon floors of the Black Hills. It thrives in fertile, cool, shaded habitats like montane deciduous forests, mixed evergreen-deciduous woodlands, and moist stream banks.

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  Apiaceae : Osmorhiza longistylis

  R. Neil Reese

  Osmorhiza longistylis is a perennial from fleshy roots that are up to 1 cm thick. Stems grow to 1 m tall and can be smooth to densely covered with short hairs. The compound leaves are bi or triternate pinnate. The leaflet blades are ovate to oblong, 3-10 cm by 1-5 cm, the margins have small teeth to larger teeth to pinnate lobes toward the base and are covered with few to a many short hairs. The petioles are long (5-16 cm) and smooth to hairy. The inflorescence is a group of loose umbels both terminal and in the axils of the upper leaves. The umbels are attached by a 5-13 cm peduncle. Each umbel has about 5 umbellets, each umbellet has 8-16 tiny flowers. The flowers have 5 white petals, 5 white-tipped stamens, and 2 white styles which exceed the length of the petals. The fruit is a schizocarp 18-20 mm long. Long-styled sweet-cicely blooms from late April to June in woods thickets and along stream banks in eastern and western South Dakota.

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  Apiaceae: Perideridia gairdneri

  R Neil Reese

  Perideridia gairdneri is a slender, erect perennial herb with tuberous roots, the solitary stem growing from 30-80 cm tall. The alternate cauline leaves are petiolate. The blades are compound pinnate or bipinnate, with the ultimate leaflets linear to filiform, 4–12 cm long and often withered at the time of flowering. The inflorescence consists of 1-several compound umbels, the peduncle 3–10 cm long, rays 1–5 cm long; and with involucral linear bracts 1–4 mm long or absent. The flowers are white with conspicuous sepals. The fruit are nearly round schizocarps, 2-3 mm in diameter. Yampah blooms from July through August in moist meadows and woodlands in western South Dakota.

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  Apiaceae: Sanicula marilandica

  R. Neil Reese

  Sanicula marilandica is a perennial herb growing 30 to 90 cm tall from a fibrous root system. Flowering occurs from June through September. Leaves are basal and alternate along the stem, palmately compound with 5 to 7 deeply lobed to toothed leaflets, each ovate to lanceolate, 5 to 15 cm long and 3 to 8 cm wide, dark green and glabrous above, lighter beneath. Flowering occurs from late spring to mid-summer (May–August). The inflorescence is a compound umbel, 5 to 15 cm wide, with many small yellow-green flowers about 2 to 3 mm in diameter. Each flower has five small, free, greenish-yellow sepals that are lanceolate to ovate and about 1 to 2 mm long, and five free, yellow, ovate petals about 2 to 3 mm long, often unequal and slightly curved. There are five stamens per flower, opposite the petals, with filaments about 1.5 to 2 mm long attached at the base of the petals, and yellow anthers approximately 0.5 to 1 mm long. The single pistil has an inferior ovary with two fused carpels, 1.5 to 2 mm long, with two locules, a short style about 0.5 mm long, and a bifid stigma. The fruit is a small dry schizocarp about 4 to 6 mm long that ripens in late summer and splits into two one-seeded mericarps. Maryland black snakeroot is native to South Dakota, occurring in rich woods, shaded slopes, shaded ravines, and along stream banks, primarily in the eastern and central parts of the state.

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  Apiaceae: Torilis japonica

  R. Neil Reese

  Torilis japonica is a biennial or annual, herbaceous plant with a fibrous root system. Mature plants typically reach 50–120 cm in height. Stems are erect, branched, slender, round, and sparsely hairy to nearly glabrous, with lower stems often tinged purple. Leaves are alternate, compound, and 2–3 pinnate (divided two or three times), with ultimate segments linear to lanceolate, 1–3 cm long and 1–3 mm wide, with sharply toothed or lobed margins; upper surfaces are medium green and sparsely hairy, lower surfaces are paler and may be finely hairy. Petioles are present, 2–6 cm long for basal and lower stem leaves; upper leaves are smaller and may be sessile. Flowering occurs from June to August, with inflorescences forming many small, flat-topped umbels, 2–5 cm across, each composed of 2–8 primary rays and numerous small, white, five-petaled flowers. The calyx is reduced to five minute teeth. Petals are five, white, obovate to notched at the tip, about 1 mm long, free and spreading. Flowers are functionally unisexual or bisexual, with both disc and marginal florets similar in appearance. Each flower has five stamens with white filaments and purple anthers about 0.5–1 mm long, and a single pistil with an inferior, two-celled ovary, two short styles, and capitate stigmas. The fruit is a small, ovoid schizocarp (mericarp), 2–3 mm long, covered with hooked bristles, green turning brown as it matures, and typically produced from July to September. Japanese hedge parsley is introduced in South Dakota, native to Eurasia, and found in disturbed habitats including roadsides, woodland edges, fields, and waste areas, especially in moist, well-drained soils and partial shade to full sun.

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  Apiaceae : Zizia aptera

  R. Neil Reese

  Zizia aptera is a perennial herb, erect with simple or branching stems which grow from a fleshy root and attain 30 to 70 cm in height. The basal leaves are chordate, simple 4-7 cm long and 3-5 cm wide, with petioles 5-10 cm long, with toothed margins. The cauline leaves are alternate, ternately divided, the divisions with margins having small teeth and often lobed. The inflorescences are loose compound umbels 5-7 cm across, attached to a long peduncle (6-10 cm) each with 7 to 15 umbellets attached by unequal pedicels (1-3 cm long) to terminal umbels of 12-18 flowers. Each tiny (< 3 mm) flower has 5 petals that remain nearly closed. The fruit is an oblong schizocarp ~ 3 mm long. Heartleaf Alexanders bloom from late April to July on moist meadows, prairies and open wooded hillsides.

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  Apiaceae : Zizia aurea

  R. Neil Reese

  Zizia aurea is a perennial herb, erect with simple or branching stems which grow from a fleshy root and attain 30 to 100 cm in height. The basal leaves are ovate, compound 6-10 cm long, bipinnate or the middle leaflet pinnately cleft. The leaflets are ovate to lanceolate, 2-5 cm wide and 1-3 cm wide, and finely toothed. The petioles are 10-15 cm long. The cauline leaves are alternate, are similar to the basal leaves, ternate or irregularly compound. The inflorescences are loose compound umbels 5-8 cm across, attached to a long peduncle (5-15 cm) each with 7 to 15 umbellets attached by unequal pedicels (1-4 cm long) to terminal umbels of 10-15 flowers. Each tiny (< 3 mm) flower has 5 petals that remain nearly closed. The fruit is an oblong schizocarp 3-4 mm long and 1.5-2 mm wide. Golden Alexanders bloom from May to July in low prairies, on the margins of ponds, ditches, and in open woodlands.

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  Apocynaceae : Apocynum androsaemifolium

  R Neil Reese

  Apocynum androsaemifolium is a perennial herb, somewhat woody dichotomously branched stems coming from rhizomes, ascending to erect and growing from 15-90 cm tall. They are smooth, light green to red in color. The leaves are simple, opposite usually with entire margins. The leaves generally droop but can be horizontal, having short petioles and are ovate to elliptical in shape, 1-9 cm long and 0.5-5 cm wide. Inflorescences are generally terminal (with some axial) open cymes. The flowers are drooping to somewhat erect. The 5-merous calyx is fused with lobes 1-3 mm long. The corolla is whitish-pink to pink with pink veins internally, broadly campanulate, 5.5-8.8 mm long and 4-8 mm wide, with lobes that are up to half the length of the tube. The fruit is a pendulous, usually straight follicle, 6-14 cm long. Spreading dogbane blooms from June to September, the seeds (2-4 mm long) emerge from the follicles in late summer and fall. They are covered in white hairs that are ~ 2 cm long. Plants can be found in prairies, at the edge of woodlands and around lakes and streams in both east and west river in South Dakota.

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  Apocynaceae : Apocynum cannabinum

  R Neil Reese

  Apocynum cannabinum is a perennial herb with branched stems coming from rhizomes, erect to ascending and growing from 0.6-2 m tall. Green to lightly red stems are alternate to opposite in orientation. The leaves are simple, opposite, ascending to erect with entire margins, sessile below and with short petioles above. The blades oblong to lanceolate, 2-14 cm long and 0.3-5 cm wide. Inflorescences are generally dense terminal cymes; the flowers erect to slightly drooping. The calyx is fused with lobes 1.2-3 mm long. The corolla is white to yellowish green, narrowly campanulate to urceolate, 2.6-4.7 mm long and 1.5-3 mm wide, with lobes that are less than half the length of the tube. The fruit are divergent to pendulous, straight to curved follicles, 7-22 cm long. Indian hemp blooms from May to September, the seeds (3-6 mm long) emerge from the follicles in late summer and fall. They are covered in white hairs that are 1.6-3 cm long. Plants can be found in prairies, roadsides, wooded waterways and sparsely wooded slopes in both east and west river in South Dakota.

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  Araliaceae : Aralia nudicaulis

  R Neil Reese

  Aralia nudicaulis is an aromatic acaulescent perennial herb With leaves and peduncles arising from long rhizomes. The compound leaves are usually solitary, erect and ternate with each division divided into 3-5 segments. The leaves are attached to petioles up to 50 cm long and the leaflets are lace-elliptic to obovate5-13 cm long acuminate with finely serrate margins. The peduncles are usually solitary, 5-13 cm long with 2-6 umbels. The 5 sepals are les than 1 mm long and the green to white petals are 1-2 mm long. The fruit are purplish black drupes 6-10 mm in diameter. Wild sarsaparilla blooms from May to July in woods in both east and west river South Dakota.

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  Araliaceae : Aralia racemosa

  R. Neil Reese

  Aralia racemosa is a perennial herb with a somewhat wood base, the stems purplish to spotted, 1-2 m in height. The alternate, compound pinnate leaves have 3-7 leaflets, up to 20 cm long and 15 cm wide, the leaflets varying in size on the same leaf, each with a saw-toothed margin. The inflorescence consists of terminal and axillary panicles of umbels, 4-40 cm long. The flowers have 5 tiny sepals (< 1mm), 5 white petals, 1mm long, and 5 stamens. The fruit is a berry-like drupe, red to black in color, 5-6 mm in diameter. Spikenard flowers in July in wooded ravines and hillsides along the eastern edge of South Dakota.