Narrative

Snake cotton (Froelichia floridana) is often common in disturbed sites throughout Texas. This is also found north into several of the plains states. This is also found in the coastal plain of the Carolinas and south to Florida and west to Alabama and Mississippi. This is a hairy annual from 18 inches to 5 feet tall. The opposite leaves are from 1-4 inches long with short petioles. They are oblong to oblanceolate. Niehaus shows leaves with smooth edges, while Diggs shows leaves with wavy edges. The Carolina flora shows leaves with wavy edges.

The white color will help identify this lifeform. This lifeform is locally common.

This lifeform is found south of the Mason Dixon line in North America.

Froelichia genus has about eighteen species native to the warmer areas in the New World. There are five species now growing in greater North America, including the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The North American species are annuals.

Amaranthaceae family (amaranth) contains about 70 genera and about 800 species. These are mostly herbs, but some exotic low shrubs are in the family. The leaves can be alternate or opposite, usually entire, and usually thin. The small flowers are in terminal spikes or axillary heads. There are no petals. This family had 19 genera and 111 species growing in greater North America as of 1994.

Centrosperm (Centrospermae) order is a large order composed of several families.

Dicots (Dicotyledoneae Class) are the predominant group of vascular plants on earth. With the exception of the grasses (Monocots) and the Conifers (Gymnosperms), most of the larger plants that one encounters are Dicots. Dicots are characterized by having a seed with two outer shell coverings.

Some of the more primitive Dicots are the typical hardwood trees (oaks, birches, hickories, etc). The more advanced Dicots include many of the Composite (Aster) Family flowers like the Dandelion, Aster, Thistles, and Sunflowers. Although many Monocots reach a very high degree of specialization, most botanists feel that the Dicots represent the most advanced group of plants.

Seed plants (Phylum Embryophyta) are generally grouped into one large phylum containing three major classes: the Gymnosperms, the Monocots, and the Dicots. (Some scientists separate the Gymnosperms into a separate phylum and refer to the remaining plants as flowering plants or Angiospermae.)

For North American counts of the number of species in each genus and family, the primary reference has been John T. Kartesz, author of A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (1994). The geographical scope of his lists include, as part of greater North America, Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Kartesz lists 21,757 species of vascular plants comprising the ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants as being found in greater North America (including Alaska, Hawaii, Greenland, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

There are estimates within the scientific world that about half of the listed North American seed plants were originally native with the balance being comprised of Eurasian and tropical plants that have become established.