Carolina rock rose or pine-barren frostweed (Crocanthemum corybosum to Helianthemum corybosum) is found in sandy soil from New Jersey(?) and North Carolina south to Florida and Louisiana. This low growing yet erect plant rarely reaches over 12 inches in height. The oblong or obovate leaves are less than one inch in length. These leaves are on short petioles. The flowers are yellow.

Helianthemum genus is found widely in the Northern Hemisphere. Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor, Central Asia, and North America provide habitat for this genus. These are woody perennials and shrublets with opposite leaves. The flowers have five petals.

There are about 110 species in this genus. There are 14 species growing in greater North America. (The American genus Crocanthemum has been merged into this genus.) The native North American species have yellow flowers.

Rock Rose Family (Cistaceae) is a small family of about 175 species distributed in Eurasia and North America. Most species are found in the Mediterranean area. These are shrubs or low woody herbs with alternate or opposite simple leaves. There are 39 species arranged in five genera now growing in greater North America.

The members of this family are mostly low growing shrubs and subshrubs. The flowers can be showy. The sepals are 3-5, and the petals can be 3-5.

Parietales Order is a large assemblage containing over thirty different families. The violets are a well-known group in this order. The St. Johnswort family is another well known family in this order. Passion flowers also belong here.

Some authors argue this order should be divided, and others have divided it into several orders.

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 (Aster) 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.

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