Opposite leaved wildflower, and 1 grass with hard caryopsis

Before I ask about the plants, I just want to say thanks to everyone who uses this forum. As a novice field botanist, this site has been a great tool for me when I get stumped in the keys. Also, when I find a single plant that I don't know, I know that I can photograph it and post it here instead of picking it and killing a potentially rare plant.

Thank You!

Today I came across a single stem of this beautiful little wildflower on a rocky shore of an island on lake of the woods (NW Ontario, E Manitoba, or N. Minnesota take your pick :)). I have been surveying up here for a few weeks now, and haven't come across this plant yet, maybe it is rare. Even if not, it is the only occurrence on one of our sites, so I didn't want to pick it just to key it, and I couldn't key it in the field.

The other plant that I need to key it this one. A simple grass, looks like it could be an annual. Broad flat leaves, hairy collar and a ligule of hairs ~2-3 mm. Lemmas are glabrous. I have a specimen of it, but I can't seem to key it. Please let me know if there is any other features on it that I need to describe.

Thanks so much!

 

Collomia?

 

That's what I thought also.

 

Keying grasses needs a microscope to see the flower details. I believe this is Panicum and it has a rather confusing spikelet structure with reduced florets looking as additional glumes/lemmas. The lemma of the fertile floret wraps around the palea and seed. It is shiny and so smooth that it is practically impossible to handle it with a pincette.

 

Only Collomia linearis goes that far east.

 

Thanks everyone! I just ran our and took another look, and it fits the description in Chadde very well. I peeked inside a persistent calyx and saw what looked like a 3 sided capsule. I think that it is a good ID.

Now for the grass. I am having some trouble with the keys in Chadde's Minnesota Flora. I am also using Voss' Field Manual of Michigan Flora. Voss has better keys, but not much in the way of descriptions.

Can anyone recommend a really user friendly grass key for the area??

Cheers!

 

This site looks neat:
http://www.bellmuseum.umn.edu/Resea...InfoonMinnesotasFlora/CommonGrasses/index.htm
http://www.bellmuseum.umn.edu/Resea...tasFlora/CommonGrasses/TechnicalKey/index.htm

 

You may want to pick up E.H. Moss' Flora of Alberta.

 

Thanks. I usually use Moss when I am working on the prairies. For some silly reason I didn't bring a copy on this trip.

Thanks for the link to the digital keys, I will try these.

 

Moss is equally good for all habitats, needless to say. There's a key provided for every family/group of species, as one would expect in a comprehensive work. :-)