Seed ID


Poaceae and Polygonaceae


Plant Photo Scientific Name Common Name and Description Seed Photo
Oats Avena sativa Common Name: Oats, Wild Oats, Oatgrass
Leaves: Short awns and hairy lemmas
Flowers: Spikelets slightly laterally compressed with 2 perfect florets
Fruit: Grain
Habitat: Disturbed areas
Range: East, southeast and north-central Texas, also the Edwards Plateau; North America
Group: Monocot
Family: Poaceae
Growth Habit: Graminoid - tufted, culms 40-75 mm long, panicles open and diffuse 15-25 cm long and 3-10 cm broad
Duration: Annual
U.S. Nativity: Introduced
Oats
Teosinte Zea diploperennis Common Name: Teosinte or Diploperennial Teosinte
Leaves: Broad flat leaves
Flowers: Both pistillate and staminate spikelets borne on the same plant
Fruit: Grain
Habitat:
Range: In very limited regions of highlands of Western Mexico
Group: Monocot
Family: Poaceae
Growth Habit: Graminoid
Duration: Perennial
U.S. Nativity: Introduced
Teosinte

Teosinte Cob
Indian corn Zea mays Common Name: Indian Corn
Leaves: Broad flat leaves
Flowers: Pistillate spikelets borne in several rows on a much-thickened cylindrical rachis (cob), the whole inflorescence covered with usually modified leaves (shucks) and the entire "ear" marked at the end by the termini of elongated styles (silk); Staminate spikelets borne in pairs on the spike-like racemes at the top of the plant
Fruit: Grain
Habitat: Incapable of survival outside of cultivation
Range: Texas, and much of the United States
Group: Monocot
Family: Poaceae
Growth Habit: Graminoid - Robust annual
Duration: Perennial
U.S. Nativity: Introduced
Indian corn
Buckwheat Fagopyrum esculentum Common Name: Buckwheat
Leaves:
Flowers:
Fruit:
Habitat:
Range:
Group: Dicot
Family: Polygonaceae
Growth Habit: Forb/Herb
Duration: Annual
U.S. Nativity: Introduced
Buckwheat
Dock Rumex occidentalis Common Name: Dock
Leaves: Alternate, flat undulate or crisped, narrowed to cordate or auricled at base
Flowers: Greenish on pedicels that are jointed to and terminate short peduncles
Fruit: Greatly increasing in size compared to their size at anthesis and erect and usually loosely coherent to the achene; ovary sessile; achene trigonous
Habitat:
Range: North America
Group: Dicot
Family: Polygonaceae
Growth Habit: Forb/Herb -
Duration: Annual
U.S. Nativity: Introduced
Dock


References:

Thumbnails of the plant photos were copied from those photos produced by the Texas A&M Bioinformatics Working Group which can be found at the Vascular Plant Image Gallery in the Flowering Gateway. When clicking on the thumbnail your are taken to their originals.

Thumbnails and enlargements of seed photos are from my own personal collection.

Some plant information has been taken from these sources:

  • Manual of the Vascular Plants of Texas, Donovan S. Correll and Marshall C. Johnston, University of Texas at Dallas, 1979.

  • USDA, NRCS. 2001. The PLANTS Database, Version 3.1. National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

  • Trees, Shrubs, and Woody Vines of the Southwest: A guide for the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, Robert A. Vines, University of Texas Press, 1994.