Question: Hoping you can help me figure out where I've gone wrong in the key process. After "All other non-flowering woody …
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Question
Hoping you can help me figure out where I've gone wrong in the key process. After "All other non-flowering woody plants"-->"Other herbaceous, flowering plants with opposite, whorled or no leaves"-->"whorled"-->"teeth" I wind up with what looks like 8 non-matches. What is this, and what mistake am I making? (This is in Southern CT, growing in wet forested areas alongside some half-hearted cardinal flower. The site won't let me upload extra images, but it's four leaves per node.)
Answer
Dear hsouvaine, your plant is a species of Eutrochium (Joe-pye weed), a member of the Asteraceae (composite family). It is likely Eutrochium maculatum, but I would need better close-up images of the capitula to determine that. The path you took in the key should have taken you to the composite pile (these have flower heads made up of several disk flowers in each capitulum). Best wishes.
