Introduction to the Campanulaceae Family

The Campanulaceae, or Bellflower family, is a widespread family of popular bell-shaped wildflowers found on every continent except Antarctica, and it is a popular garden ornamental for its lovely flowers.

The first time I found one was on a grassy bluff next to the ocean, and I automatically knew what family it was in. The pretty blue bell-shaped flowers with the single long style were a strong clue since those are what the family is best known for, although other colors and shapes are seen.

Beginner’s Guide to the Bellflower (Campanulaceae) Family

If you’re new to plant morphology, this guide is a perfect beginner’s description, with no need to know any scientific jargon. Below this section is additional information on uses and morphology photos, followed by pictures of individual species found in North America. For researchers or those wanting to learn a more in-depth version, refer to the Scientific Botanical Description below the images for highly detailed scientific descriptions and genus-level distribution data.

Leaves and Stems of the Bellflower Family

Most members are perennial herbs, but some annuals, biennials, shrubs, or small trees exist in the family. Most live on land, but a few are rooted aquatics. One key identifying feature is the milky juice that is released from the tissues when they are damaged.

Leaves are usually arranged alternately on the stem, but they occasionally appear in opposite pairs or almost whorl-like. They are usually simple (not compound), linear, lance-shaped, oblong, egg-shaped, or rounded. They have variously toothed margins, but occasionally they are smooth (entire) or sometimes so deeply divided they appear compound and made of separate leaflets.

Flowers of the Bellflower Family

Flowers are often medium to large and showy, appearing singly or in various spikes or umbrella-shaped clusters. They are typically symmetrical and bell-shaped or star-shaped, giving them the common name of bellflowers. However, they can also appear distinctly “two-lipped” in some subfamilies. Most are blue or purple, but some are white, yellow, red, or pink.

Reproductive Features of the Bellflower Family

Reproductive features are often highly specialized to ensure successful pollination by insects. There are usually 5 stamens (male parts) that may be separate or joined in a long column surrounding the female parts (ovary, style). Most species have an inferior ovary located below where the petals attach. A single long style comes up through the center of the flower, often bearing hairs for secondary pollen presentation.

Fruits of the Bellflower Family

The fruit is almost always a dry capsule that splits open through valves, pores, or slits to release the seeds. In some tropical and Pacific Island Lobelioideae clades, the fruit may be a fleshy berry with brightly colored seeds for bird dispersal.

Morphology of Campanulaceae Found in North America

Some Campanulaceae Species Found in North America

Campanuloideae Subfamily

Campanula alaskana—Alaska Bellflower

Herbaceous perennial from rhizomes with weak stems with larger basal leaves and small, linear stem leaves. Flowers are large and showy, bell-shaped, nodding, and up to 3 cm long in blue-violet to lavender colors. It is often confused with Campanula rotundifolia but has broader leaves, and it is only found along the North Pacific from Washington State north to Alaska.

Campanula petiolata—Western Harebell

This was a recent taxon split from the much more widespread Campanula rotundifolia, with which it shares many characteristics but tends to be more upright with stronger stems. The long style with a 3-lobed tip visible in the photo is common among Campanula rotundifolia and close relatives like these. Some taxonomists do not recognize this or Campanula alaskana as separate species from Campanula rotundifolia.

Campanulastrum americanum—American Bellflower

A tall, erect annual or biennial common in moist woods. Unlike most bellflowers, it has flat star-shaped flowers in elongated spikes, and it has alternate lance-shaped leaves compared to the often linear ones seen in Campanula species.

Triodanis biflora—Venus’s Looking Glass

This species is an annual herb of disturbed areas with alternate leaves that do not wrap around the stem. It has pinkish to purple bellflowers with widely spreading lobes that make them look like a star. Native to the southern and eastern United States, Mexico, and South America.

Triodanis perfoliata—Clasping Venus’s Looking Glass

This species is very similar to Triodanis biflora, with a similar native range, though perhaps a bit more widespread. It can usually be differentiated by the leaves shown here that clasp and nearly wrap all the way around the stem. However, they can hybridize, making identification difficult.

Lobelioideae Subfamily

Lobelia appendiculata—Pale Lobelia

This species is an annual unbranched herb that grows up to 60 cm tall with oblong to egg-shaped leaves that clasp partway around the stem. It has pale blue to white two-lipped flowers (2 upper lobes and 3 larger lower ones) in a loose terminal spike. It is native to the south-central USA.

Lobelia cardinalis—Cardinal Flower

This herbaceous perennial grows up to 1.2 m tall and is found mostly in or near bogs, riverbanks, swamps, or wet forests. It has large, lance-shaped to oval leaves with toothed margins. The flowers are large and bright red, with 5 deeply cut lobes. Plants with pink or white flowers occasionally occur. It is native to southeastern Canada, the eastern and southern USA, and south to northern Colombia.

Lobelia spicata—Pale Spike Lobelia

This short-lived perennial is often found flowering below taller grasses in sunny or semi-shaded prairies, woodlands, and disturbed areas. They have simple, variously elongated-shaped leaves with shallow teeth and are most known for their sometimes densely flowered spikes of white or pale blue flowers, like those in the photo. Native to southern Canada and the eastern USA.

Uses of the Campanulaceae Family

With plenty of showy flowers, this family is popular for garden ornamentals, especially from Lobelia, Wahlenbergia, Codonopsis, Jasione, and more than 120 species of Campanula. They are widely grown in gardens and landscapes around the world.

Different species also have a history of use in herbal, folk, and traditional Chinese medicine. Codonopsis lanceolata (Deodeok) and Platycodon grandiflorus (Doraji) roots are widely used in Korean cuisine, and the young basal rosettes of Campanula species have long been used as wild edible greens, especially in the Mediterranean region.

Ecosystem and Wildlife Values of the Campanulaceae Family

Many Campanulaceae members play key roles in terrestrial ecosystems, especially in temperate and arctic climates, where they serve as food for native fauna and drive specialized plant-pollinator networks. Many temperate bellflowers host very specific solitary native bees in the Chelostoma and Mellitta genera. In tropical climates and on isolated islands, many Lobelioideae members show classic bird-pollination adaptations. Others are specialized for hawkmoth and bat pollination.

Hawaiian Lobelioideae show a classic example of adaptive radiation, where over 120 endemic species (found nowhere else in the world) have evolved there from a single ancestral colonization event that happened about 13 million years ago.

Taxonomy of Campanulaceae

The Campanulaceae currently contains approximately 2,380 species in 84 genera based on the most modern circumscription based on modern phylogenetics. The Campanulaceae are part of the Asterales order of the core Eudicots (dicots), and the family is divided into five subfamilies as follows:

Campanuloideae Subfamily

The Campanuloideae is a large subfamily of mostly herbs (rarely sub-shrubs) characterized by actinomorphic, mostly 5-merous flowers, stamens that are expanded into ciliate bases that sprawl over the inferior (rarely half-inferior) ovary after the anthers have dehisced, and long styles with collecting hairs along the upper surface for secondary pollen presentation. Fruits are mostly dry capsules. These are widespread and found worldwide, with especially high diversity in the northern temperate Old World.

Genera of the Campanuloideae Subfamily

Adenophora (68), Asyneuma (37), Azorina (1), Berenice (1), Campanula (452), Campanulastrum (1), Canarina (3), Codonopsis (49), Craterocapsa (5), Cryptocodon (1), Cyananthus (19), Cyclocodon (3), Cylindrocarpa (1), Echinocodon (1), Edraianthus (21), Favratia (1), Feeria (1), Githopsis (4), Gunillaea (2), Hanabusaya (1), Heterochaenia (4), Heterocodon (1), Himalacodon (1), Homocodon (2), Jasione (14), Kericodon (1), Legousia (6), Merciera (6), Michauxia (8), Microcodon (4), Muehlbergella (1), Musschia (3), Namacodon (1), Nesocodon (1), Ostrowskia (1), Pankycodon (1), Peracarpa (1), Petromarula (1), Physoplexis (1), Phyteuma (22), Platycodon (1), Prismatocarpus (27), Pseudocodon (8), Rhigiophyllum (1), Roella (22), Sachokiella (1), Sergia (2), Siphocodon (2), Theilera (2), Theodorovia (1), Trachelium (2), Treichelia (2), Triodanis (6), Wahlenbergia (263).

Lobelioideae Subfamily

The Lobelioideae is a subfamily of herbs, shrubs, or small soft-wooded trees with terminal, occasionally axillary, inflorescences and large to small, strongly zygomorphic (bilabiate) and almost universally resupinate flowers. Stamen filaments are connate at least apically, and anthers are connate; the style grows out through the staminal tube. Fruits are berries or capsules. They are mostly tropical, especially common in the New World, with a major center of diversity in the Andes and over 100 endemic species found on the Hawaiian Islands. They are not present in the Arctic and are absent from the Near East and Central Asia.

Genera of the Lobelioideae Subfamily

Brighamia (2), Burmeistera (129), Centropogon (212), Clermontia (23), Cyanea (81), Delissea (15), Dialypetalum (5), Diastatea (9), Dielsantha (1), Downingia (13), Grammatotheca (1), Heterotoma (1), Hippobroma (1), Howellia (1), Isotoma (10), Legenere (1), Lobelia (444), Lysipomia (32), Monopsis (15), Palmerella (1), Porterella (1), Ruthiella (4), Sclerotheca (~13), Siphocampylus (237), Solenopsis (13), Trematolobelia (8), Unigenes (1), Wimmeranthus (1), Wimmerella (10).

Nemacladoideae Subfamily

The Nemacladoideae is a small subfamily of tiny annuals (rarely perennial) with sub-opposite leaves, racemes without bracteoles, and small flowers that are not resupinate. Anthers are connivent; filaments are connate apically and may be free at the base. These are restricted to the southwestern USA (especially California) and northwestern Mexico.

Genera of the Nemacladoideae Subfamily

Nemacladus (26), Pseudonemacladus (1).

Cyphioideae Subfamily

The Cyphoideae are a monogeneric group of perennial herbs (twining vines) and shrubs with tuberous roots. The fused corolla is split almost to the base into some groups, usually with three upper lobes and two lower lobes. Stamen filaments may be free or connate. They are mostly native to Southern Africa but also in East Africa and the Cape Verde Islands.

Genera of the Cyphioideae Subfamily

Cyphia (76).

Cyphocarpoideae Subfamily

The Cyphocarpodeae is a small subfamily that is entirely endemic to Chile. They are annual or perennial spiny herbs with deeply lobed leaf margins and foliaceous bracts. The upper corolla lobe is sub-hooded, and the lower lobes show three ridges.

Genera of the Cyphocarpoideae Subfamily

Cyphocarpus (4).

Key Differences From Similar Families

Campanulaceae is easy to distinguish when a combination of traits are seen, which include the presence of latex in fresh tissues, simple, predominantly alternate leaves without stipules, an inferior ovary, and specialized pollination presentation systems.

However, sometimes plants from Acanthaceae and Lamiaceae are confused with their strongly zygomorphic, bilabiate corrollas, but they all feature opposite leaves, four-angled stems (Lamiaceae), superior ovaries, and usually 2 or 4 epipetalous stamens.

Rubiaceae, with its inferior ovaries and long reddish or orange corolla tubes, is sometimes placed in Campanulaceae, but they differ in leaves that are usually opposite or whorled and have distinct interpetiolar stipules, clear sap, and free epipetalkous stamens.

While closely related to the Asteraceae, the Campanulaceae usually do not have distinct pseudanthia with involucral bracts, whereas the Asteraceae virtually always form specialized pseudanthia called a capitulum. The Asteraceae also produce specialized single-seeded dry fruits called cypselae, often topped with a pappus, compared to the capsules or fleshy berries of Campanulaceae.

Scientific Botanical Description of the Campanulaceae Family

Habit & Leaf Form of the Campanulaceae Family

They are mostly perennial herbs, with some annual or biennial species and a few shrubs, all with heights varying from a few cm to pachycaul trees up to 15 m in height. The plants possess well-developed laticiferous systems, which produce milky, acrid latex in articulated laticifers, mostly found in vegetative phloem, which is an important identifying characteristic.

They are variously hydrophytic (rooted with emergent and submerged leaves) to xerophytic and high alpine taxa.

Plants frequently have a basal aggregation of leaves that are often distinctly different from the cauline leaves. They are usually alternate and spirally arranged, although opposite or pseudowhorted may appear in some taxa.

Leaves are petiolate or subsessile, with non-sheathing or weakly sheathing leaf bases featuring free margins. Leaves lack gland dots, stipules, and a pulvinus, although tooth tips may bear hydathodes or gland-like mucros.

Lamina are almost universally simple, though deeply pinnatifid, palmatifid, or laciniate divisions can make them appear compound. When entire, the lamina is highly variable, with linear, lanceolate, oblanceolate, oblong, ovate, obovate, or orbicular forms frequently seen. Margins are rarely entire and instead typically bear crenate, serrate, or dentate teeth, often tipped with glandular points.

Flowers of the Campanulaceae Family

Plants are usually hermaphroditic, but gynodioecious and rarely functionally dioecious forms also occur. Pollination is entomophilous, ornithophilous, chiropterophilous, or sphingophilous and usually conspicuously specialized via modifications of the style with invaginated collecting hairs (pollen brush) for Campanuloideae and a pollen-pumping anther tube (synandrium) for Lobelioideae.

Flowers are borne solitary or aggregated in cymes, racemes, spikes, and umbels, and sometimes with head-like pseudanthia with distinct involucral bracts. Inflorescences are scapiflorous or caulescent, terminal or axillary, and with bracts and bracteoles usually present.

Flowers are medium to large, tetracyclic, and predominantly 5-merous, but polymerous in Platycodon and Michauxia. Symmetry ranges from actinomorphic in Campanuloideae to zygomorphic/bilabiate in most others. The perianth has a distinct calyx and corolla, usually with 10 parts in 2 whorls.

The calyx is made of 5 (rarely up to 10 parts e.g., Michauxia) in 1 whorl adnate to the ovary wall to form a hypanthium. In many species, the calyx lobes are basally appendaged, often covering the ovary furrows, producing basal spurs or saccate forms, or sometimes an epicalyx-like structure formed from modified bractlets is also seen. Calyx lobes are valvate or imbricate.

The corolla has 5 or up to 10 parts (e.g., Michauxia) in 1 whorl that is almost always connate, although it may be deeply divided in some genera. Aestevation is predominately valvate. The corolla is extremely variable in form, often appearing campanulate with long tubular bells, but it can also take on bilabiate, rotate (starry), infundibuliform (funnel-shaped), or urceolate shapes. Petals are typically blue, violet, or purple, but white, yellow, red, and pink are also seen. Saccate bases, floral spurs, or internal nectar-sectreting scales are present at the corolla base or hypanthium rim.

Androecium of the Campanulaceae Family

There are usually 5 or 5–10 (Michauxia, Platycodon) androecial members made of exclusively fertile stamens that are free of the perianth or adnate only to the base of the tube or hypanthium (never epipetalous along the upper tube). They are in 1 isomerous whorl, alternating with the corolla lobes. Stamens may be free from one another or coherent, sometimes forming a staminal tube around the style.

Filaments are filiform above, but in Campanuloideae they are almost universally basally dilated, flatted, and triangular/laminate. Dilated bases are often ciliate along the margins, overlapping to form a protective layer over the epigynous nectary disc.

Anthers are tetrasporangiate, introrse, and dehiscing via longitudinal slits. They range from free and distinct to connate, forming a rigid tubulkar synandrium around the upper style in Lobelioideae, where the tips are often furnished with tufts of trichomes, awns, or scalelike appendages for triggers during secondary pollen presentation.

Anthers dehiscence is introrse in bud (protandry), shed onto stylistic collecting hairs (Campanuloideae) or stored within the tip of the anterh tube (Lobelioideae) prior to flower opening.

Gynoecium of the Campanulaceae Family

The gynoecium is syncarpous with 2, 3, or 5 carpels, or up to 8 in Ostrowskia or 8–10 in Michauxia, with locule numbers matching the carpels. The ovary is predominantly inferior (adnate to the hypanthium), but is half-inferior in several clades or very rarely appears superior.

There is a terminal, erect style that often extends well past the anthers. In Campanuloideae the upper shaft of the style is densely covered with retrorse, invaginated collecting hairs that sweep or collect pollen from the introrsely dehiscing anthers during bud.

The number of stigmatic lobes equals the number of carpels. Prior to female anthesis, the lobes remain appressed but spread at maturity to reveal dry to semi-wet papillate surfaces.

Placentation of ovules is predominantly axile on large, swollen placental projections, or rarely parietal. Typically, there are 10 to >100 ovules per locule. Ovules are anatropous, unigeneric, and tenuinucellate, with a well-developed endothelium.  

Fruit of the Campanulaceae Family

The fruit of the Campanulaceae is almost always a non-fleshy, dehiscent primary via lateral pores, basal/apical valves, or longitudinal slits, with pore placement in Campanuloideae strongly correlated with floral orientation, although dehiscence is rarely via transverse circumscissile splitting or irregular. Furthermore, fleshy indehiscent berries have evolved, especially in tropical and Pacific Island clades, where they are often brightly colored for bird dispersal.

Seeds are small, often very numerous, light, and adapted for wind, water, or animal transport, though they only rarely contain wings. The seed coat exhibits diverse patterns, smooth, glossy, striate, reticulate, pitted, rugose, etc., that are useful for species-level diagnostics. Seeds are endospermic, oily, and rarely starchy. 

Global Distribution of the Campanulaceae

The Campanulaceae are found from frigid zones to tropical climates with a near-cosmopolitan distribution, excluding only tropical Africa and Antarctica. They are found in deserts, rainforests, and the Arctic, but the majority of species are northern temperate species.

In the Americas, the Campanulaceae are widely found through Canada, including the Arctic (and Greenland), and south through the USA, Mexico, Central America, and South America.

Distribution of Campanulaceae in the Americas

Canadian Campanulaceae Genera

Campanuloideae in Canada

Campanula 19 spp., including 18 spp. native in all of Canada, including the Arctic (and Greenland), and 1 sp. intro to BC; Campanulastrum monospecific E NAM endemic genus native to ON & QC; Githopsis 1 sp. W NAM endemic genus native to S Vancouver Island, BC; Heterocodon monospecific W NAM endemic genus native to BC; Jasione 1 sp. intro to BC; Triodanis 1 sp. native to BC, ON, and QC.

Lobelioideae in Canada

Downingia 2 spp. native to BC, AB, and SK; Isotoma 1 sp. intro to BC; Lobelia 2 spp. native to BC, ON, and QC, and ephemeral in NB.

USA Campanulaceae Genera

Campanuloideae in the USA

Asyneuma 1 sp. native to OR and CA; Campanula 34 spp., including 33 spp. native to most of the USA and AK but excluding OK, AR, LA, and MS, and 1 sp. intro to NV and NH; Campanulastrum monospecific E NAM endemic genus native to the E USA from MN S to LA and all EE plus SD S to OK; Clermontia 22-23 narrow endemic spp. of HI; Cyanea 80-81 spp. narrow endemic genera of HI; Githopsis 4 spp. W NAM endemic genera native to MT, WA, OR, and CA (2 endemics); Heterocodon monospecific W NAM endemic native to WA, OR, CA, NV, ID, MT, WY, and CO; Jasione 1 sp. intro to WA, OR, NC, MD, PA, DE, NY, CT, NJ, RI, and MA; Legousia 1 sp. intro to CA and PA; Platycodon 1 sp. intro to NY, PA, NC, and HI; Triodanis 6 spp. native to all of the USA (5 endemics) and intro to HI; Wahlenbergia 2 spp. intro to TX, LA, AR, MS, AL, GA, SC, NC, and FL.

Lobelioideae in the USA

Brighamia 2 spp. narrow endemic genera of HI; Delissea 15 spp. narrow endemic genera of HI; Downingia 13 spp. native to WA, ID, MT, OR, WY, CA, NV, and UT, includes 9 USA endemics, mostly in CA; Hippobroma monospecific intro to FL and HI; Howellia monospecific W USA endemic of WA, ID, MT, OR, and CA; Legenere monospecific Americas disjunct endemic of CA + Patagonia; Lobelia 43 spp. native and intro to the entire USA and HI and native in AK; Palmerella monospecific narrow endemic of S CA + N BC Mexico; Porterella monospecific endemic of OR, ID, WY, CA, UT, and AZ; Trematolobelia 8 spp. narrow endemic genera of HI.

Nemacladoideae in the USA

Nemacladus 18-26 W NAM endemic spp. native to OR, ID, CA, NV, UT, AZ, and NM, including many endemic to the W USA.

Mexico Campanulaceae Genera

Campanuloideae in Mexico

Campanula 1-2 spp. native to NE Mexico and intro to SW+SE Mexico and Ver; Githopsis 1 W NAM endemic sp. native BC and Guadalupe Is.; Heterocodon monospecific W NAM endemic native to NW Mexico; Triodanis 1 sp. native throughout Mexico except the SE.

Lobelioideae in Mexico

Centropogon 4+ spp. mostly neoendemic, native to most of Mexico except the NW, and includes 1 endemic species; Diastatea 8 spp. including 7 endemics native to most of Mexico (exc. NW); Downingia 1 sp. native to NW Mexico; Heterotoma monospecific neoendemic native to NE+C+SW+NE Mexico; Hippobroma monospecific intro to all of Mexico; Lobelia ~86 spp., including ~20 endemic to all of Mexico; Palmerella monospecific narrow endemic of S CA + N BC Mexico; Wimmeranthus monospecific endemic of SW Mexico.

Nemacladoideae in Mexico

Nemacladus 10 W NAM endemic spp. native to NW Mexico, mostly in BC, including 1 endemic to BC; Pseudonemacladus monospecific endemic to NE Mexico.

Neotropical Campanulaceae Genera

Campanuloideae in the Neotropics

Triodanis 1 sp. native to Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, S+SE Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina, and intro to Jamaica and the Dominican Republic; Wahlenbergia 6 spp. neoendemics of E+S Brazil (inc. 1 Brazil endemic), Colombia, French Guiana, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, C Chile, and Uruguay.

Cyphocarpoideae in the Neotropics

Cyphocarpus 3 spp. narrow endemic genera of N+C Chile.

Lobelioideae in the Neotropics

Burmeistera 129 spp. neoendemic genera of Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru; Centropogon ~211 spp. mostly neoendemic, native to CAM (exc. Belize) and tropical SAM S to Peru, Bolivia, and C+SE Brazil, and the Lesser Antilles (2 endemics); Diastatea 2 spp. native to CAM (exc. Belize), Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and NW Argentina; Heterotoma monospecific Mexico and neoendemic to Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica; Hippobroma longiflora monospecific originally endemic to Jamaica but widely introduced elsewhere; Lobelia ~50 spp. native to CAM, the Antilles, and all of SAM except Guyana and includes Galapagos; Lysipomia 32 spp. Andes endemic genera of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia; Siphocampylus 237 spp. neoendemic genera of Costa Rica, Panama, the Greater Antilles, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil (exc. N), Paraguay, N Argentina, and Uruguay.

Patagonia Campanulaceae Genera

Campanuloideae in Patagonia

Campanula 1 sp. intro to S Argentina and Falkland Is.; Triodanis 1 sp. native to S Argentina; Wahlenbergia 1 sp. native to S Chile.

Lobelioideae in Patagonia

Downingia 1 sp. native throughout Patagonia (also native in California); Legenere monospecific Americas disjunct endemic of California + Patagonia; Lobelia 5+ spp. native throughout Patagonia and Falkland Is. and intro to South Georgia Is.

Additional Information and References

• Visit Lyrae’s Dictionary of Botanical Terms to learn the terminology of botanists. Note that if you hover over most of the words in the articles, you can also get definitions from them there.
• Willis, Lyrae (Unpublished). Plant Families of North America. This is where all of the family descriptions come from. Below should be most of my references for this, along with my own personal observations throughout North America.
• Canadensys: Acadia University, Université de Montréal Biodiversity Centre, University of Toronto Mississauga, University of British Columbia. http://data.canadensys.net/explorer (accessed 2020 – current)
• Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. (1992+). The Families of Flowering Plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 2nd May 2020. delta-intkey.com. Accessed spring through fall of 2020.
• FNA (1993+). Flora of North America. https://floranorthamerica.org/Main_Page. Accessed 2022-current.
• GBIF.org (2020+), GBIF Home Page. Available from: https://www.gbif.org
• iNaturalist.org (2020+). https://www.inaturalist.org/. Accessed 2020-current.
• Naturalista: CONABIO http://www.naturalista.mx (Accessed 2020–current).
• Neotropikey: Milliken, W., Klitgård, B., & Baracat, A. eds. (2009+). Neotropikey: Interactive key and information resources for flowering plants of the Neotropics. www.kew.org/neotropikey.com (accessed 2020 – current).
• Patagonia Wildflowers: Wildflower Identification Site. https://patagoniawildflowers.org/ Accessed throughout the fall of 2020.
• POWO (2019+). Plants of the World Online. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet: http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org/
• Stevens, P. F. (2001+). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 14, July 2017 [more or less continuously updated since]. http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/
• USDA, NRCS. 2020. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 2 June 2020). National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC, USA; accessed 2020-present.
• WFO (2022): World Flora Online. Published on the Internet: http://www.worldfloraonline.org. Accessed Spring 2022 – current

Copyright Information

The information and the photos on this site are free to use for educational purposes, with proper attribution. For other uses, please contact me first.

You can cite this site as follows: Willis, Lyrae (2020+). Lyrae’s Nature Blog – Plant Families of North America. https://lyraenatureblog.com/. Accessed [Enter Date].