Categories of North American plants

The variety of plants in the collection are categorized as follows:

Primitive species:

these include the alga, ferns, horsetails, clubmosses, spikemosses, and quillworts.

Woody plants:

plants that have one or more permanent stems above ground and remain above ground throughout the winter. The stems and branches have a woody core that supports the structure of the plant. They include shrubs, bushes, and trees.

Sedges and Rushes:

grasslike plants, sedges usually have triangular solid stems, pointed leaves, and flowers borne in spikelets; rushes usually have round stems, linear leaves and inconspicuous flowers.

Grasses:

plants in the family Poaceae, they have narrow leaves, small inconspicuous flowers, and hollow stems with joints where the leaves attach.

Forbs:

characterized by their usually broad leaves, these flowering plants have green non-woody stems and many live for only one or two years.

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