Narrative

Prairie Sabatia (Sabatia campestris) is found on prairies from Missouri and Kansas south to Texas. The stem is 4-angled and branched. The leaves are ovate or lanceolate and obtuse at their tip and cordate and somewhat clasping at their base. The flowers are between one and two inches broad. The unusual yellow center of the flower helps identify this species.

This lifeform is found in open grasslands or in plains.

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

Sabatia genus is found from eastern North America south through the Caribbean and south into Central America. There are about 20-30 glabrous herbs in this genus. There are 18 species and another four subspecies native to greater North America, which includes the Florida Keys, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.

Gentian Family (Gentianaceae) contains mostly non-woody species of worldwide origin. There are about eight hundred species in this family. Many fine United States wildflowers are in this family. In greater North America, this family contains 117 species arranged in 17 genera.

Contortae Order is usually organized to contain the Olive, Gentian, Milkweed, and a few other families. Recently some authorities have removed certain genera from the Gentian Family and placed them in the Menyanthes Family.

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.