Know Your Natives – Rattan Vine
Rattan Vine or Supplejack (Berchemia scandens) of the Buckthorn (Rhamnaceae) family is a large-stemmed, high climbing, twining, woody vine with simple leaves that have parallel veins. Genus name recognizes Jacob Pierre Berthoud van Berchem, an 18th Century Dutch naturalist and mineralogist. Specific epithet is from a Latin word meaning “to…
Know Your Natives – Wood nettle
Wood nettle (Laportea canadensis) of the Nettle (Urticaceae) family is a perennial forb cloaked in needle-like, translucent, painfully stinging hairs. The genus name honors French naturalist Francois Laporte who studied the fauna of North America in the 1840s. The specific epithet refers to Canada, the locality from which Linnaeus’s type…
Know Your Natives – Green Milkweed
Green milkweed (Asclepias viridiflora) of the Dogbane (Apocynaceae) family, formerly of the Milkweed (Asclepiadaceae) family, is one of 14 Asclepias species found in Arkansas. It occurs across the U.S. except for six western states and five northeastern states. In Arkansas, it occurs throughout much of the state, except for lowlands…
Know Your Natives – Green Trillium
Green trillium (Trillium viridescens), of the Trillium (Trilliaceae) family is a spring ephemeral. It has a limited distribution in the U.S., occurring along eastern borders of Texas and Oklahoma, in southeastern Kansas and southwestern Missouri, and throughout western Arkansas. In Arkansas, it occurs primarily in the mountainous areas of the…
Know Your Natives – False Aloe
False aloe (Manfreda virginica) is an herbaceous perennial in the Agave (Agavaceae) Family. In the US, false aloe is found in the Southeastern and Midwestern States as well as in Texas. In Arkansas, the species is found pretty much throughout the state except for some areas of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. …
Know Your Natives – Jack-in-the-Pulpit & Green-Dragon
Jack-in-the-pulpit and green-dragon, in the Arum (Araceae) Family, are herbaceous perennial monocots that occur throughout the state in similar habitats. Both are smooth overall and hairless. Plants range from 2 inches to 2 feet in height. Habitats include mesic (well-balanced moisture) deciduous woodlands and thickets and hillside seeps with light shade…
Know Your Natives: Coralberry
Coralberry (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus) of the Caprifoliaceae (Honeysuckle) Family occurs in the U.S. from Texas to South Dakota and Minnesota, eastward to central New England and southward, though it is infrequent to absent throughout much of the East Gulf Coastal and Southern Atlantic Coastal Plains. In Arkansas it occurs primarily in the northwestern half…
Know Your Natives – Mistletoe
As many as twenty-three species of mistletoe in the genus Phoradendron, of the Santalaceae (Sandalwood) Family, have been identified in the U.S. (though some authorities lump them together into fewer species). Only one mistletoe of the genus is known to occur in Arkansas: Phoradendron leucarpum (in the strictest sense…a few others are sometimes lumped with it…
Know Your Natives – Baldwin’s Climbing Milkweed and Anglepod Milkvine
Baldwin’s climbing milkweed (Matelea baldwyniana) and Anglepod milkvine (Matelea gonocarpos or Gonolobus suberosus depending on which authorities are followed) of the Apocynaceae (Dogbane) Family, formerly of the Asclepiadaceae (Milkweed) Family, are herbaceous, perennial, trailing to climbing vines. These vines grow in various rocky, well-drained soils in open woodlands, ravines and overgrown areas. Each plant…
Know Your Natives – Four-Leaved Milkweed
Milkweeds, of the Apocyanceae (Dogbane) Family (formerly of the Asclepiadaceae [Milkweed] Family), are herbaceous perennials with 14 species identified in Arkansas. Most, but not all, milkweeds have milky sap. Milkweeds are important pollinator plants attracting butterflies, moths, ants, bees, flies, and wasps. The life cycle of Monarch butterflies depends on…
Know Your Natives – American Alumroot
American alumroot (Heuchera americana) of the Saxifragaceae (Saxifrage) Family occurs from northeastern Texas to eastern Nebraska and eastward to the Atlantic. In Arkansas, it occurs in the northwestern half of the state and several counties in the southwest. This perennial, herbaceous plant in its natural habitat grows in crevices of…
