Plants Identified

Quercus macrocarpa

Burr Oak or Mossycup Oak

Family: Fagaceae

Native Region: Central and Eastern Canada and US

Plant Community: Oak Hickory

Size: 60-80′ tall and wide

Hardiness Zone: 3-8

Habitat: Found in floodplains, forests, swamps, and prairie edges. Prefers mesic to dry-mesic solid of high pH. Can tolerate harsh condition like drought, limestone soil, and alkaline clay soil.

Leaf: Deep green, large leaves with two deep margins in the summer, turning yellow-brown in fall.

Flower: Yellowish-green flowers, blooming in April.

Ecosystem services: Due to extreme drought tolerance, it is often used in roadside spaces and shelterbelts. Can also be used in flooded situations like rain gardens and areas with cyclical drought and flooding. Also used as a spatial tool as a windbreak, shelterbelt, riparian forest buffer, and woody restoration.

https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=a902 h

ttps://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=quma2

https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=QUMA2

https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/quercus/macrocarpa/

Click to access fs_quma2.pdf

Psathyrella ammophila

Dune Brittlestem

Family: Psathyrellaceae

Native Region: US and Canada

Plant Community: Barrier Beach

Size: Up to 2″

Hardiness Zone:

Habitat: Found on dunes of lake-side environments, feeding on decaying grass roots.

Fruiting Body: Beige stem with warm-brown cap and exposed gills.

Ecosystem services: Adds to ecology of sand dunes.

https://species.nbnatlas.org/species/NHMSYS0001495014

https://mushroomobserver.org/name/show_name/3448 http://iucn.ekoo.se/iucn/species_view/337654/

Larix decidua

European Larch

Family: Pinaceae

Native Region: Central and southern Europe, Naturalized: northeastern US and southeastern Canada

Plant Community: Urban Growth

Size: 50-75′ tall, 25-30′ wide

Hardiness Zone: 3-6

Habitat: Found in anthropogenic areas, forests, shrublands or thickets. Prefers dry, acidic soil in full sun to partial shade. Also tolerates poor soil.

Leaf: Green needles in the summer, turning to yellow in the fall before dropping.

Flower: White to burgundy cotton-textured, drooping flowers, blooming in spring.

Ecosystem services: Good candidate for street trees and other anthropogenic areas with poor soil.

https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/larix/decidua/

https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=LADE2

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=POGR4

https://garden.org/plants/view/77443/European-Larch-Larix-decidua/

Populus grandidentata

Big-toothed Aspen

Family: Salicaceae

Native Region: Northeastern US, Eastern and Western Canada

Plant Community: Old Field

Size: 30-75′ tall, 20-40′ wide

Hardiness Zone: 3-7

Habitat: Found in forest edges, forests, meadows and fields, shrublands or thickets, and woodlands. Prefers full sun to partial shade, moist to dry-moist soil. Tolerates a range of acidities, from very acidic to slightly alkaline. it also tolerates poor soil.

Leaf: Yellowish bright green with deep-toothed margins.

Flower: Silver-grey flowers blooming in late winter and early spring.

Ecosystem services: Colonizer roots easily street to disturbed areas like fields and burnt areas. Good use as an upper canopy tree in a disturbed areas.

https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/trees/plants/bt_aspen.html

https://garden.org/plants/view/84361/Big-Tooth-Aspen-Populus-grandidentata/

https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/populus/grandidentata/

https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=POGR4

Pieris “Brouwers Beauty”

Cultivar of Pieris

Family: Ericaceae

Native Region: Cultivar, not native

Plant Community: Old Field

Size: 5-7′ tall, 5′ wide

Hardiness Zone: 5-8

Habitat: Does well in areas of partial sun and good drainage.

Leaf: Greenish blue to greenish yellow, evergreen.

Flower: Arching panicles white, yellow-gold, and lander flowers with deep purplish buds, blooming in spring.

Ecosystem services: Good use for ornamental urban garden in the winter, rain gardens, butterfly gardens, and areas to attract birds.

https://www.monrovia.com/plant-catalog/plants/1970/brouwers-beauty-lily-of-the-valley-shrub/

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/pieris-brouwers-beauty/

https://garden.org/plants/view/118641/Hybrid-Andromeda-Pieris-Brouwers-Beauty/

Malus adstringens “Hopa”

Cultivar of Crab Apple

Family: Rosaceae

Native Region: Not native

Plant Community: Barrier Beach, Old Field

Size: 10-25′ tall and wide

Hardiness Zone: 4-8

Habitat: Prefers moist, clay, sandy, acidic soil in full sun to partial shade. Tolerates seaside and moderately salty conditions.

Leaf: Dark-purplish green leaves in the summer, turning to yellow in the fall.

Flower: Pink flowers and red and yellow berries, blooming in May.

Ecosystem services: Best if used for an ornamental or smaller screen tree in acidic soil or salty conditions, either by the water or by salted roads. Also tolerates compacted and dry soil, making it a good choice for anthropogenic areas. Resistant to deer and attracts birds and bees.

Emerald Spire® Flowering Crabapple Malus x adstringens ‘Jefgreen’

https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Malus+x+adstringens

https://selectree.calpoly.edu/tree-detail/malus-%C3%97-hopa

Click to access malsppa.pdf

Kalmia latifolia “Firecracker”

Cultivar of Mountain Laurel

Family: Ericaceae

Native Region: Eastern US

Plant Community: Oak Hickory, Red Maple Swamp, Northern Hardwood

Size: 5-15′ tall and wide

Hardiness Zone: 4-9

Habitat: Found in forest edges, forests, meadows and fields, swamps, wetland margins, and woodlands. Prefers cool, moist, rich, acidic, humusy, well-drained soils in part shade, but tolerates a range of lighting conditions. Does not tolerate clay soil.

Leaf: Dark green leaves with yellowish-underside.

Flower: Bright reddish-pink buds and light pink, speckled flowers, blooming in May. Flower and bud color give this cultivar its name, because the regular variety has a much more muted-white flowering.

Ecosystem services: Used as a flowering ornamental, or as a screen or buffer shrub due to its munk-trunked nature. It can also be used for erosion control because of its trunk and root system.

http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=c798

https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=KALA

https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/kalmia/latifolia/

Cladonia arbuscula

Reindeer Lichen

Family: Cladoniaceae

Native Region: Canada and Northern US

Plant Community: Oak Hickory, Red Maple Swamp, Northern Hardwood, Old Field. Does well in plant communities with Pinus rigida and Pinus banksiana

Size: Up to 1″

Hardiness Zone:

Habitat: Depending on the region, can be found in bogs, fens, rocky outcrops, rocky lakeshores, Pinus banksiana forests, muskegs, exposed peatlands, barren fields and plains. Can tolerate humid and moist conditions but is more abundant in dry conditions. Because they absorb moisture from the atmosphere, this species can tolerate dry and drought conditions that would not support vascular plants. it is not shade tolerant.

Leaf: Greyish-green with yellow tinge and small brown edges at some points.

Flower: Non-flowering.

Ecosystem services: Not really a species to be planted, but will occur in applicable plant community conditions. Usually a post-fire colonizer. Toxic if eaten so they are resistant to deer and rabbits.

https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/lichens/claspp/all.html#GENERAL%20DISTRIBUTION

Myrica pensylvanica

Northern Bayberry

Family: Myricaceae

Native Region: Eastern North America

Plant Community: Barrier Beach

Size: 5-10′ tall and wide

Hardiness Zone: 3-7

Habitat: Found in areas close to the shore. Prefers moist, sandy, acidic soils in full sun to partial shade. Can also thrive in a range of soil conditions, like dry, wet, drought, high winds, and salty conditions.

Leaf: Greyish-green leaves in the summer that turn to yellowish-green in the fall.

Flower: Flowers in insignificant, but yield greyish berries. Blooms in May. Attracts butterflies.

Ecosystem services: Because of its tolerance to a range of growing conditions, including poor and salty conditions, this species is a good choice for an urban planting along salted roadways or in a rain garden. Can be used as a green species in the winter months as leaves persist longer into winter. Also used well for dunes and other areas prone to erosion as roots sucker and hold soil together.

https://www.mortonarb.org/trees-plants/tree-plant-descriptions/bayberry

http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/detail.php?pid=292

Click to access fs_mope6.pdf

https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=MOPE6

http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=e310

Acer platinoides “Crimson King”

Cultivar of Norway Maple

Family: Sapindaceae

Native Region: Europe, Naturalized: Northeastern and northwestern US and Canada

Plant Community: Urban Growth, INVASIVE

Size: 30-40′ tall, 20-40′ wide

Hardiness Zone: 3-7

Habitat: Found in anthropogenic and urban areas, streets, forests, and forest edges. Prefers moist, well-drained soil in full sun but tolerates most difficult conditions like heat, drought, a range of soil conditions, and air pollution.

Leaf: Dark green color in the summer. Bright red which turn to maroon in the fall and persist through the growing season, where this cultivar gets its name and use. Also considered over-used.

Flower: Yellow-green flowers, blooming in March to April.

Ecosystem services: While common in urban settings, this tree SHOULD NOT BE PLANTED as it becomes invasive and take out out other species. This is due to its large tolerance for living conditions where other species cannot and that fact that it seeds freely.