American sycamore is a tree that can be seen in the wet prairie that we went to. It can be identified by its broad trunk, leaves are lobed, alternate, palmately compound.
Eastern cottonwood is another tree that can be found in here. A way to identify this tree is how it grows fast, leaves are alternate, simple, and triangular in shape.
Prairie grasses and forbes can be found all around here. One grass would be Indian grass and can be identified by its seed head that has a golden color and its leaf sheath is open.
A forb here would be tall boneset and can be identified by its cluster of white tubular flowers and its leaves are opposite. Also, since it is a forb, its leaf sheaths are closed.
Limestone loving plants are plants that grow well in high lime content soil. A few examples of these would be Blue ash, Hackberry, Fragrant sumac, and Hop hawthorn. Here are pictures and how to identify them!
Blue ash can be identified by its square stem and pinnately compound leaves.
Hackberry’s leaves come off the branch flat that are alternate, simple, and have a coarsely toothed margin. Its bark can be identified by the look of cat scratches.
Fragrant sumac is a native plant and its leaves are alternate as well as trifoliate and they have a blue green color.
Hop hawthorn can be identified by its cat scratch bark as well as its alternate leaf arrangement with a serrated margin.
An invasive species at Battelle Darby would be a cattail. This species is aggressive in wetlands and crowds out native plants. A cattail can be identified by the look of a cigar or hotdog on a stick.
Prickly ash is apart of a host plant interaction where larvae of giant swallowtail butterfly feed off of it.
