Narrative

Major periwinkle (Vinca major) is native to the Caucasus Mountains of Eurasia.

The blue color will help identify this lifeform. This lifeform is frequentlhy domesticated.

This lifeform is found in Turkey, Israel, and Iran. This non-native lifeform is now locally established in North America..

Vinca genus contains six or seven species native to the Old World. Three species are established in greater North America. Perennial herbs and low, somewhat woody ground covers are present in this genus. The leaves are opposite and the flowers are solitary.

Dogbane Family (Apocynaceae) contains about thirteen hundred species of both woody and non-woody plants of worldwide distribution. There are 62 species arranged in 28 genera established in greater North America.

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.