Narrative

Virginia Creeper or Thicket Creeper (Parthenocissus inserta to Parthenocissus quinquefolia) is found from east Canada to Florida and California. This species also occurs in Mexico and Cuba. This vine has compound leaves with five leaflets originating from the same point. It can become a troublesome weed. Some authors divide the eastern United States species in this genus into two different species. Others, including Kartesz, believe that this is all one species with two varieties.

This lifeform is found east of the Continental Divide in North America. This lifeform is found in Mexico.

Parthenocissus genus is native to North America and northern Asia and the Orient. There are about ten species of woody vines in this genus. There are four species and two varieties now growing in greater North America.

Grape Family (Vitaceae) is a family of about 600-800 species arranged in about a dozen genera widespread mainly in the tropics. However, it also ranges north and south into cooler climates. There are 37 species arranged in five genera growing in greater North America.

Rhamnales Order is a small order of woody plants containing only two 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.