Cashew Family (Anacardiaceae)

Click the link below to find out more about this plant in the Cashew Family:

• smooth sumac

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How can I recognize a member of the cashew family?
At Nachusa Grasslands there are only 3 species of this family: poison ivy and both aromatic and smooth sumac bushes. Things to notice are alternate trifoliate or pinnate leaves. The flowers of the ivy are hardly noticeable and are whiteish green and turn into white fruits. The flowers of the sumacs are also white but in large clusters and the fruits are bright red. These sumac species will not make you itch.

Cool stuff to know about the cashew family:
Bees are the  main pollinators of these plants, Birds can eat the poison ivy berries with no ill effects, and in some years an outbreak of certain leaf beetles can defoliate the smooth sumac. 

Crowfoot Family (Ranunculaceae)

Click the link below to find out more about this plant in the Crowfoot Family:

• thimbleweed​​

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How can I recognize a member of the crowfoot family?
This can be challenging since the family is highly variable, making the relationships less obvious. To identify them, closely examine the flower’s pistils—there will be three or more, often with hooked tips, each independently attached above all other floral parts, including the petals, sepals, and stamens.​

Cool stuff to know about the crowfoot family:
This family is also called the buttercup family. The plants in this family usually contain an acrid glycoside oil. Some of these are considered safe to taste or cook in small amounts. But members of the Aconitum and Delphinium genera have other toxins and should not be eaten.
The scientific name is classical Latin and comes form the name for frog, rana, since many of the crowfoot family grow in wet places.

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smooth sumac

Rhus glabra

Dye hard!
​This common shrub (in all 48 continental states) does not carry the urushiol irritant. In fact, a lovely lemonade can be made of the ripe fruits by soaking and straining. All parts of smooth sumac can be made into natural dyes for cloth or other fibers.

It seems that the only insect (in adult and larva forms) that can eat sumac leaves due to strong chemical compounds is the leaf beetle, Blepharida rhois. The beetle larva puts its concentrated feces on its back to deter predators.
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Male or Female?
Smooth sumac Individuals are either male or female and can grow in large colonies and shade out all other plants. The fire regime here keeps these colonies short. One of the last shrubs to leaf out in spring, the compound leaves turn a brilliant red in the early autumn.

Scientific name origins:
​Rhus is the classic Latin name for this genus of plants that often have the irritant, urushiol. Glabra is Latin for smooth.

thimbleweed

Anemone cylindrica 

​The flowers are 5 white petal-like sepals topped by a greenish-white flower with an elongated center which, being bumpy, resembles a thimble used to protect fingers from a sewing needle.

The seeds are surrounded by cottony tufts and are often found in mouse nests as insulation!

There are many species of Anemone in North America (25 or more). They are not usually eaten by mammals due to the burning sensation it creates in the mouth and stomach.

Scientific name origins:
Anemone is from the Greek and means daughter of the wind. The seed head of this anemone is cylindrical in shape, hence its specific name.