SELECTED REFERENCES FOR INFORMATION ON

SOUTH DAKOTA PLANTS

Ball, J. and D. Graper. 1995. Trees for South Dakota. Cooperative Extension Service Circular 903. South

Dakota State University, Brookings, SD. $3.00 available from SDSU Ag. Heritage Museum (phone 605-688-

6226)

A photographic guide and key to about 70 trees commonly planted in South Dakota for horticultural and

conservation purposes. Contains much information on where and what kind of environment each species is best

suited for planting, together with descriptions of growth characteristics, tolerances, suitable soils, and named

cultivars suitable for use in South Dakota.

Ball, John, David F. Graper, and Carol M.F. Wake. 2000. Shrubs for South Dakota. Cooperative

Extension Service EC 904, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD. $5.00 from SDSU as above.

A photographic guide and key to more than 100 shrubs and vines suitable for horticultural use in South

Dakota. Information on growth requirements and plant characteristics are included for each cultivar.

Barr, C.A. 1983. Jewels of the Plains. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN. Out of print but

available in libraries and as used book.

Narrative descriptions of several hundred prairie plant species having horticultural value, interjected with

delightful stories of Mr. Barr's experiences in tracking down and propagating these wild plants. Claude Barr was

a rancher, plant taxonomist and rock gardener who lived in southwestern South Dakota.

Dorn, R.D. and J.L. Dorn. 1977. Flora of the Black Hills. Published by the authors. Cheyenne, WY. Out-of-

print but available in libraries and as used book.

A taxonomic key to vascular plants of the Black Hills. It also contains a summary of early plant collectors in

the Hills and a reprint of John Thilenius' publication describing the vegetation types of the Black Hills.

Gabel, Audrey and Elaine Ebbert. 2004. Mushrooms and Other Fungi of the Black Hills and

Surrounding Area. Black Hills State University Press, Spearfish, SD. $14.99 through BHSU Bookstore

(phone: 605-642-6279).

A photographic guide to about 75 different fungi found in the Black Hills. Includes instructions on how to

collect and identify mushrooms using dicotomous keys, spore prints, and other idendifying characteristics.

Provides scientific and common names for many edible and poisonous species as well as an overview of fungi in

all their varied forms.

Great Plains Flora Association. 1986. Flora of the Great Plains. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS.

$55.00

The only recent manual to systematically describe all wild vascular plants of the Great Plains. Contains

taxonomic keys, technical descriptions, habitats, total ranges, and distribution within the Great Plains. Also

contains keys to many infraspecific taxa.

Johnson, James R. and Gary E. Larson. 1999. Grassland Plants of South Dakota and the Northern Great

Plains. Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 566(rev), SD State University, Brookings, SD.

$17.95 from the SDSU Ag Heritage Museum (ph. 605-688-6226). If you liked the original Plants of the South Dakota Grasslands, you'll love this new, revised, expanded and

improved version. It features excellent color photographs of 289 grassland plants. The text that accompanies

each illustrated plant includes a description, habitat, range, forage value, traditional human uses, and other

important facts. It also includes all the noxious weeds of South Dakota.

Kindscher, K. 1987. Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS. $14.95

In this and the following book, Kelly Kindscher has brought together a great deal of information into two very

handy plant references. There is a sketch and range map for almost all of the plants treated, together with

information on common, Indian and scientific names; description and habitat; food uses, parts used, and

cultivation.

Kindscher, K. 1992. Medicinal Wild Plants of the Prairie. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS.

$14.95

Like the companion volume above, this book compiles a great wealth of information on traditional uses of

Great Plains plants. This one provides a well researched and referenced guide to medicinal uses of these plants.

Kingsbury, J.M. 1964. Poisonous plants of the United States and Canada. Prentice Hall, Inc., Englewood

Cliffs, NJ. The classic text on poisonous plants of the United States. Out-of-print but available as a used book.

Larson, Gary E. 1993. Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains. USDA, Forest

Service, General Technical Report RM-238, Fort Collins, CO. 680 pp. [Out-of-print but available as used

book.] The best reference to wetland plants of South Dakota. Primarily a taxonomic key with descriptions and

county distribution maps for each species covered, but there are many line drawings and some color photos.

Larson, Gary E. and James R. Johnson. 1999. Plants of the Black Hills and Bear Lodge Mountains.

Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 732, SD State University, Brookings, SD.

$34.95 from the SDSU Ag Heritage Museum (ph. 605-688-6226). This is the most comprehensive photographic field guide to South Dakota plants. Almost 600 plants are

illustrated by excellent quality photographs accompanied by plant descriptions, habitat, distribution, and usage.

Written and printed in the same style as the authors' Grassland Plants book, this larger volume includes most of

the species covered in the Grassland book plus 300 addition species. The Grassland Plants book does include a

few dozen species, e.g. sandhills plants, that are not covered in the Black Hills book.

Moyle, J.B. and E.W. Moyle. 2001. Northland Wild Flowers. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis,

MN. $19.95.

A photographic guide to over 300 wild flowers of Minnesota. It is probably the best photographic guide for

woodland species found in eastern South Dakota. The original 1977 edition is good and the newly revised

edition is even better. For each species the authors provide a paragraph of interesting information.

Ode, David J. 2006. Dakota Flora – A Seasonal Sampler. South Dakota State Historical Society Press,

Pierre, SD. 260 pp. Out-of-print but available in many libraries and as a used book.

A compilation of 82 articles on South Dakota plants originally published in the South Dakota Conservation

Digest. This is not a field guide but does feature many color photographs and more in-depth stories about

interesting plants that grow wild in the Northern Plains.

Rogers, D.J. 1980. Lakota names and traditional uses of native plants by Sicangu (Brule) people in the

Rosebud area, South Dakota. The Rosebud Educational Society, Inc., St. Francis, SD. Out-of-print

Van Bruggen, T. 1983. Wildflowers, grasses, and other plants of the Northern Plains and Black Hills.

Third Edition. Badlands Natural History Association, Interior, SD. ca. $5.00

A photographic guide organized by flower color. Each species is illustrated by a color photograph. Includes

flowering dates and interpretive information about each species.

Van Bruggen, T. 1985. The vascular plants of South Dakota. Second edition. Iowa State University Press,

Ames, IA. [NOTE: OUT OF PRINT but still in Libraries & used book outlets]

Taxonomic keys, technical descriptions, habitats, and flowering dates for all 1,608 vascular plant species

growing wild in South Dakota. A revised edition is being written and will become available in 2013.

Vance, Fenten R., James R. Jowsey, and James S. McLean. 1999. Wildflowers of the Northern Great

Plains. Third edition. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN. $14.95

A field-guide to over 400 native wildflowers, grasses and sedges of the northern plains (including the aspen

parklands) with photographs and line drawings as illustrations. Primarily focused on the prairie provinces of

Canada this guide does includes at least 215 species found in South Dakota, including woodland, wetland and

prairie species. David J. Ode, SD Natural Heritage Program, September, 2012