Narrative

Floating Heart (Nymphoides peltata) originated in Eurasia, and is now naturalized in the United States. This is a aquatic perennial. This annual form is a popular pond ornamental with floating leaves.

The yellow color will help identify this lifeform. This lifeform is frequentlhy domesticated. This lifeform is aquatic and found only in or near water.

This lifeform is found widely in Eurasia. This lifeform is widespread in North America.

Nymphoides genus is found in most of the world. There are about 20 species of aquatic plants with long stalked floating leaves. There are four species found in the United States.

Genera Fauria, Menyanthes, and Nymphoides were previously part of the Gentian family. However, Kartesz places these three genera in the Manyanthaceae family. There are six species of this family 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.