Flowering Plants

By Flower Color

A Field Guide to Wildflowers:  Northeastern and North–Central North America (2d ed.)

(drawings of flowers, some in color) (Roger Tory Peterson & Margaret McKenny; Houghton Mifflin: Mar 1998; $19.00, paper: 448 pp)

Wildflowers of Ohio (2d ed.) (319 color photos of flowers)

(Robert L. Henn; Indiana University Press; Feb 2008; $19.95; paper; 264 pp)

By Taxonomic Key (i.e., arranged by plant characteristics):

Simple Key

Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide (drawings, some in color)

(Lawrence Newcomb; Little Brown; Apr 1989; $19.99, paper; 490 pp)

Advanced Key

The Vascular Flora of Ohio (3 volumes completed)

The Monocotyledoneae: (Vol 1 Cat-tails to Orchids)

(E. Lucy Braun & Clara G. Weishaupt; Ohio State University Press; Jul 1967; $66.95; hardcover; 464 pp)

The Dicotyledoneae (Part 2 Linaceae through Campanulaceae)

(Tom S. Cooperrider; Ohio State University Press; Feb 1995; new $88.95, used $50; hardcover; 656 pp)

The Dicotyledoneae (Part 3 Asteraceae)

(T. Richard Fisher; Ohio State University Press; Mar 1989; new $88.95, used $40; hardcover; 280 pp)

Vascular Plants of Ohio:  A Manual for Use in Field and Laboratory (3^rd ed.)

(verbal descriptions only; no photos or drawings) (Clara G. Weishaupt; Kendall/Hunt; 1971; new $69, used $30, paper; 292 pp)

Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley, and the Southern Appalachians

(color photos and drawings) (Dennis Horn, David Duhl, Tavia Cathcart, & Tom Hemmerly; Lone Pine Publishing; June 2005; $22.95; paper; 496 pp)

Ferns

(simple key) (Anne & Barbara Hallowell; Nature Study Guild Publishers; Nov 2001; $3.95; paper; 64 pp)

(Peterson Field Guides) (100 color photos & 200 b/w drawings) (Boughton Cobb, Elizabeth Farnsworth, & Cheryl Lowe; Houghton Mifflin; Sep 2005; $20.00 paper; 440 pp)

Grasses

Agnes Chase’s First Book of Grasses:  The Structure of Grasses Explained for Beginners (4^th ed.)

(Lynn G. Clark & Richard W. Pohl; Smithsonian Institution Press; Apr 1996; $18.95; paper; 176 pp)

The Monocotyledoneae

(The E. Lucy Braun & Clara G. Weishaupt work listed above under Flowering Plants also contains grasses.)

Mosses

Mosses of the Great Lakes Forests (4^th ed.)

(verbal descriptions) (Howard Crum; Michigan University Herbarium; May 2004; $40; hardcover; 592 pp)

Trees

Field Guide to North American Trees (revised ed.)

(Thomas S. Elias; Times Mirror; Jan 1991; $32.95; hardcover)

A Field Guide to Eastern Trees:  Eastern United States and Canada, including the Midwest

(photos & Drawings) (Peterson Field Guides) (George A. Petrides, Janet Wehr & Roger Tory Peterson; Houghton Mifflin; Jul 1998; $20; paper; 448 pp)

Woody Plants of Ohio

(E. Lucy Braun; Ohio State University Press; 1989; $33.95; paper; 362 pp)

Fruit and Twigs of Woody Vegetation (Tress & Shrubs)

Fruit Key and Twig Key to Trees and Shrubs

(William M. Harlow; Dover Publications; 1959; $5.95; paper; 126 pp)

For Ohio

Information on Ohio trees is accessible from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR).

The Vascular Plant Image Library includes images of hundreds of Ohio plants, as well as thousands of other plants from around the world.

For images of some particular groups of plants, see these sites: fungi, weeds, introduced (this site gives a listing of plants not native to North America), and Ohio’s 10 most invasive non-native plants.

For the United States and Beyond:

The Flora of North America is a comprehensive reference source.  Its 30 volumes provide information on the names, taxonomic relationships, continent-wide distributions, and morphological characteristics of all plants native and naturalized found in North America north of Mexico.  It is the scientific community's vehicle for synthesizing and presenting botanical information.

The PLANTS Database of the US Dept of Agriculture provides standardized information about the plants of the U.S.  It includes names, plant symbols, checklists, distributional data, species abstracts, characteristics, images, crop information, automated tools, onward Web links, and references.

The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) gives authoritative information about the scientific classification of plants, animals, fungi, and microbes of North America and the world.

See our Gallery of Ohio’s Wild Plants, containing pictures taken mostly during walks of Ohio's Native Plant Societies and similar organizations. The photographs are arranged into the following groups:

The Gallery serves two purposes – to enjoy photographs of the wild flora of Ohio, and to aid in identification of our plants.  We strive to have several pictures for each plant to depict different angles of flowers, leaves, stem, habitat and other parts that would help in a full photographic description of the plant.  Pictures are organized by the color of the flower in each flowering time category.

Flowering times were designated as EARLY SPRING through the first part of May.  LATE SPRING takes us to the beginning of July while SUMMER covers July and August.  September and on belongs to FALL flowering time. 

There are five Color categories:  WHITE, YELLOW (includes Orange), RED (includes Pink), BLUE (includes Violet), GREEN (includes Brown).  (Based on A Field Guide to Wildflowers:  Northeastern and North–Central North America 2d ed..  (Roger Tory Peterson & Margaret McKenny; Houghton Mifflin: Mar 1998; $19.00, paper: 448 pp)

Name Search - The Gallery can be searched by the plant's name (common or Latin, even partial name)  by clicking Edit (top left of the page) and then Find on This Page.

More pictures are coming....with your help

In order to be even more useful for plant identification and appreciation, the Gallery needs many additional photographs.  We need the help of all photographers who have good pictures of Ohio’s wild flora.

The kind of pictures to send –

Look at the Gallery.  The first priority would be pictures of flowers that we don’t have yet in the Gallery.  Next important are plants where we need more pictures for better identification.  And lastly, if you can add a better picture to the existing ones, please do so. 

Please note – we currently displaying Native Plants ONLY.  Aliens/Non-Native Species will be added at a later date.

Submitting photographs:

1.     Please read and agree to the Photograph Release Form, found at the bottom of this page.

2.     Size of photographs:  JEPG format.  Max size is 400 (horizontal) X 300 (vertical)  pixels.  For vertical pictures, max height is 300 pixels and width can vary up to 400 pixels.

3.     Labeling the file:  Each file (photograph ) name should be: your First name, Last name, month and year picture taken,  Plant’s common name, plant’s Latin name.  For plant’s name, we adhere to USDA PLANTS program, so please verify names at: http://plants.usda.gov/index.html.

     An example for a file name is: John, Smith, 06-2009, Bur-reed, Common, Sparganium eurycarpum.

     Also, please indicate where the photograph was taken.

4.     Photographs should be sent electronically to: ohioflora@yahoo.com.

5.     Please limit your initial entry to 10 pictures.

6. Please indicate in the email where the photos were taken.  Also, please write all pertinent information that you would like to see as an acknowledgment on the website for your contribution.  You may include items such as name, website, email, a short biography etc.  Please be aware that all such information would be open to the public.

Each submission will go through a review by two separate editors.  

If your picture is accepted for inclusion on this website, it will be displayed with the photographer’s name, in the same format as the pictures below.

Thank you,

Ami Horowitz

Our Gallery of Native Plants--Click on a picture to enlarge it.

Enjoy the pictures displayed here, but please do not copy them or use them in any way without the express permission of the photographer, who may be contacted through the webmaster, or on the upcoming acknowledgement page.