Narrative

Green violet (Hybanthus verticilatus) is found from Kansas west to Colorado, and south to Texas, Arizona, and Mexico. The leaves are usually linear.

This lifeform is found in open grasslands or in plains.

This lifeform is found in the SW USA (Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona) This lifeform is found in Mexico.

Hybanthus genus is native to the tropics and near tropical areas in both hemispheres. There are 80 species of herbs, woody perennials, and shrubs in this genus. The flowers have five petals and the lowest petal is the largest. There are four species established in greater North America. One of these, verticillatus, has two named varieties.

Violet (Violacea) family contains not only the familiar violets (Genus Viola) but also about twenty different additional genera. There are about 800 species in this worldwide family arranged in 23 different genera. There are 92 species in greater North America arranged in three different genera.

Parietales Order is a large assemblage containing over thirty different families. The violets are a well-known group in this order. The St. Johnswort family is another well known family in this order.

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.