Narrative

Broom nailwort (Paronychia virginica) is a smooth perennial from a woody base that is usually less than 16 inches tall. This is primarily a Texas species. (This species is not in the Carolina flora from 1965.)

The yellow color will help identify this lifeform.

This lifeform is found in the Great Plains of North America.

Paronychia genus is a cosmopolitan genus with about 110 species of herbs. The North American species are perennials, often woody at the base, with opposite leaves. There are 27 species, zero hybrids, and 17 subspecies growing in greater North America. This genus was once in the Corrigiolaceae (whitlow-wort) family, but has now been moved to the Caryophyllaceae (pink) family.

Pink Family (Caryophyllaceae) contains over 2,000 species, is usually organized into eighty to ninety different genera, and is well-represented in the northern temperate regions. These are annual or perennial herbs usually with opposite entire leaves. There are several well-known weeds in this family. There are 40 genera and 346 species growing in greater North America.

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.