Narrative

Toothcup or long-leaved Ammannia (Ammannia coccinea) is found from New Jersey west to Ohio and South Dakota and south to Florida and northeastern Texas. This species is also found from Mexico south to Brazil. This is a widely branched species that grows to about three feet tall. Its leaves are linear to lanceolate with wider bases. It might be a natural hybrid.

The purple color will help identify this lilfeform. This lfieform is found in swamps or very moist ground. This lifeform is widespread, but not common.

This lifeform is found south of the Mason Dixon line in North America. This lifeform is found widely in the New World tropics.

Ammannia genus is a worldwide genus of about 25 species. These are annual herbs with opposite, usually narrow, leaves. These plants prefer wet habitats. The stems are usually 4- angled.

Loosestrife Family (Lythraceae) reaches its greatest development in the American tropics. There are over 500 species of trees, bushes, and herbs in this family. These species are arranged in 26 different genera. There are 38 species arranged in 11 genera now growing in greater North America.

Myrtiflorae Order is an assemblage of over twenty different 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.