Species Hierarchy
Kingdom PLANT (PLANTAE)
Phylum SEED PLANTS (EMBRYOPHYTA)
Class DICOTS (DICOTYLEDONEAE)
Order ROSE AND ALLIES (ROSALES)
Family WITCH HAZEL (HAMAMELIDACEAE)
Common name: HAZEL - WINTER
Scentific name: CORYLOPSIS PAUCIFLORA

LEAVES
Location: SEATTLE ARBORETUM, WA., USA, 2006

Species Info:

This lifeform is found in the Orient (China, Japan, Korea). The yellow color will help identify this lifeform. This lifeform is frequently domesticated.

Winter hazel (Corylopsis pauciflora) is native to Taiwan and Japan.  This woody shrub has large and open flowers. The species name, pauciflora, means few flowers.

Corylopsis genus (winter hazel) is native to an area from northern India east through China to Japan. There are about thirty species of shrubs and small trees in this genus. The fragrant flowers are in hanging racemes.

Witch Hazel Family (Hamamelidaceae) is found primarily in Asia, but a few species are found in the United States. These are trees or shrubs with alternate petioled simple leaves. There are about 90 species in this family. There are five species established in greater North America.

Rose Group (Order Rosales) contains many large and very important families. Included here are fruit trees in the family Rosaceae, the nitrogen fixing plants like clover and alfalfa (in the family  Leguminosae), and a large assemblage of plants divided into over fifteen different families.

Dicots (Dicotyledoneae Class) are the predominant group of vascular plants on earth. With the exception of the grasses (Monocots) and the Conifers (Gymnosperms), most of the larger plants that one encounters are  Dicots. Dicots are characterized by having a seed with two outer shell coverings. Some of the more primitive Dicots are the typical hardwood trees (oaks, birches, hickories, etc). The more advanced Dicots include many of the Composite Family flowers like the  Dandelion, Aster, Thistles, and Sunflowers. Although many Monocots reach a very high degree of specialization, most botanists feel that the Dicots represent the most advanced group of plants.

Seed plants (Phylum Embryophyta) are generally grouped into one large phylum containing three major classes: the Gymnosperms, the Monocots, and the Dicots. (Some scientists separate the Gymnosperms into a separate phylum and refer to the remaining plants as flowering plants or Angiospermae.)

For North American counts of the number of species in each genus and family, the primary reference has been John T. Kartesz, author of A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (1994). The geographical scope of his lists include, as part of greater North America, Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Kartesz lists 21,757 species of vascular plants comprising the ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants as being found in greater North America (including Alaska, Hawaii, Greenland, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands).

There are estimates within the scientific world that about half of the listed North American seed plants were originally native with the balance being comprised of Eurasian and tropical plants that have become established.

Plant kingdom contains a large variety of different organisms including mosses, ferns, and seed plants. Most plants manufacture their energy from sunlight and water. Identification of many species is difficult in that most individual plants have characteristics that have variables based on soil moisture, soil chemistry, and sunlight.

Because of the difficulty in learning and identifying different plant groups, specialists have emerged that study only a limited group of plants. These specialists revise the taxonomy and give us detailed descriptions and ranges of the various species.  Their results are published in technical journals and written with highly specialized words that apply to a specific group.

On the other hand, there are the nature publishers. These people and companies undertake the challenging task of trying to provide easy to use pictures and descriptions to identify those species.

 

Search Region:
World
Species Range:
Click to enlarge
Photos
(Click on an image below to display at left)

LEAVES

 


Quick Jump:
Click to jump to
SAXIFRAGE - STRAWBERRY
SAXIFRAGA STOLONIFERA
Backward 10 species
Click to jump to
PITTOSPORUM - JAPANESE
PITTOSPORUM TOBIRA
Backward 1 species
Click to jump to
FOTHERGILLA SHRUB
FOTHERGILLA GARDENII
Forward 1 species
Click to jump to
AGRIMONY - MANY FLOWERED
AGRIMONIA PARVIFLORA
Forward 10 species