(Sapindaceae) Maple Family. Comprised of 2-4 genera and about 120 species. Species include trees, shrubs, lianas or herbaceous vines with simple, palmate, trifoliolate, or pinnate leaves.

Pine or Spruce Aphid Family. Comprised of 2 genera and about 22 species that are native to the northern hemisphere. Member of this family are covered with a dense woolly wax and only lay eggs.

Amaranth Family. Comprised of about 175 genera and more than 2,500 species, mostly herbs and subshrubs. Members of this family can be annuals or perennials and commonly grow in saline soils. Characterized simple leaves and the presence of betalain pigment which causes the stems, roots, leaves or flowers of many species to be red in color.

Arum Family. Comprised of 140 genera and about 4,075 species. Members of this family are characterized by flowers that are borne on a type of inflorescence called a spadix. The spadix is usually accompanied by, and sometimes partially enclosed in, a spathe (leaf-like bract).

Fleshy seed cover.

Commonly cultivated for cut and dry floral arrangements; often included in wildflower seed mixes.

Touch-me-not Family. Comprised of 2 genera and about 1,000 species of fleshy herbaceous plants that have toothed leaves and spurred flowers. The flowering plants may be annual or perennial.

Barberry Family. Comprised of 14 genera and about 701 species of perennial herbs and shrubs. Many of the shrubs have spines or spiny-margined leaves and flowers are highly variable.

Birch Family. Comprised of 6 genera and about 145 species. Members are trees and shrubs that have simple, serrate, alternative leaves and are deciduous.

Flowering Rush Family. Comprised of just one species, Butomus umbellatus. It is native to Europe and Asia and has become naturalized in temperate North America.

Water Shield Family. Comprised of 2 genera and about 6 species of aquatic, herbaceous plants that live in still or slow-moving waters of temperate and tropical North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.

Freshwater Crayfish Family. This is the largest of the four families of freshwater crayfish and is comprised of over 400 species. Most are native to the United States east of the Great Divide and Mexico.

Honeysuckle Family. Comprised of 42 genera and 890 species. Well known for its many ornamental shrubs and vines. Members are trees, shrubs, vines or herbs and recognizable by their opposite leaves.

Staff-Tree Family. Comprised of about 55 genera of woody vines, shrubs, and trees that are native to tropical and temperate zones. Fruit are typically colorful, leaves are leathery and flowers are small, with four to five sepals and petals.

Long-horned Beetle Family. Comprised of about 25,000 species of beetles whose common name is derived from the extremely long antennae of most species.

Freshwater Perciform Fish or Snakehead Family. Comprised of 3 genera and more than 50 species of elongated, predatory fish. Characterized by their large mouths and long, single dorsal and anal fins. They are also able to breathe atmospheric air with the help of a pair of vascular cavities located near the gills.

Stonewort or Freshwater Green Algae Family. Comprised of 6 genera and about 400 species that primarily live in fresh or occasionally, brackish waters. Members of this family have large, macroscopic thalli that grow up to 120 cm long, branched, multicellular and use chlorophyll to photosynthesize. They are very fragile and release a foul odor when crushed.

A type of flower that do not open and self-pollinates.

Ray-finned Fish Family. Includes herrings, sardines, pilchards, shads, menhadens, and allies. Comprised of about 56 genera and 190 species that live in marine waters and many bodies of fresh water.

True Loach Family. Comprised of more than 200 species with most being native to central and southern Asia. Typical loach have very small scales and 3-6 pairs of whisker-like barbels around its mouth. They are hardy and usually nocturnal.

Sedge Family. Comprised of 70-115 genera and about 5,000 species of grasslike, herbaceous plants. Member of this family have fibrous roots, triangular stems and three-ranked, linear leaves. Many species are annuals, especially those of weedy or seasonal habits.

Minnow and Carp Family. Includes minnows, goldfish, bitterlings, barbs, and carps. Comprised of about 220 genera and 2,420 species that live in fresh but sometimes brackish waters. They have pharyngeal teeth in 1-3 rows, some with 1 or 2 pairs of small barbels and range from 2.5 to 250 cm.

Yam Family. Comprised of 4 genera and 870 species of herbaceous or woody vines and shrubs, distributed throughout tropical and warm temperate regions. Member of this family have thick, sometimes woody roots or tuber-like underground stems and net-veined, often heart-shaped leaves that are sometimes lobed.

Teasel Family. Comprised of 11 genera and about 350 species of perennial or biennial herbs and shrubs. Flowers are bisexual and slightly irregular, clustered in a dense head. There are five sepals, four to five united petals and four stamens.

Freshwater Bivalve Family. Comprised of 4 genera of small freshwater mussels and aquatic bivalve mollusks that attach themselves to stones or other hard surfaces using a byssus.

Oleaster Family. Comprised of 3 genera of shrubs and small trees of the Northern Hemisphere. Plants have a characteristic silvery or rusty-colored sheen, produced by a covering a tiny, distinctive scales. Root nodules contain nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

Lanternfly Family. Comprised of about 143 genera and 716 species of brilliantly colored, moderate to large sized insects. Some members of this family are characterized by a hollow projection on their head which resembles a snout. It is sometimes inflated, nearly as long as the body, long and upturned.

Goby family. Comprised of more than 200 genera and 2,200 species. They are small, bony, carnivorous and primarily live in marine habitats.

Water Milfoil Family. Comprised of 8 genera and 145 species of land, marsh, and water herbs with small leaves and small flower clusters. Flowers are usually unisexual, wind-pollinated, with three- to four- chambered ovary and a similar number of styles.

Mud Snail Family. Comprised of over 260 species of very small, freshwater and brackish water snails with an operculum. Members of this family have a shell height of less than 8mm, are dextrally-coiled and smooth.

Frog's-bit or Tape-grass Family. Comprised of 18 genera and about 135 species of submerged and emergent freshwater and saltwater aquatic herbs. They are generally dioecious and produce radially symmetrical flowers.

Leaf Snail Family. Small to medium-sized air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks.

Loosestrife Family. Comprised of 31 genera and about 650 species of trees, small shrubs and perennial herbs. Members of this family are characterized by the their petals being crumpled in the bud and the many-layered outer integument of the seed.

Pepperwort or Water-clover Family. Comprised of 3 genera and about 70 species of small aquatic ferns that root in mud or grow in shallow water. Members of this family are characterized by spore-bearing structures (sporangia) in hard cases (sporocarps) that are produced at or beneath ground level at the bases of the leaves.

Buckbean Family. Comprised of 5 genera and 40 species of aquatic or marsh herbs that are native to temperate areas of the world. Members of this family often spread vegetatively by creeping underwater rhizomes (stems) and bear floating or emergent leaves.

Midwest Invasive Species Information Network

Marine Mussel Family. Comprised of 54 genera and about 412 species of small to large marine and brackish-water bivalve mollusks.

Water-nymph or Naiad Family. Comprised of 1 genera and about 40 species. Members are typically annual, rarely perennial, herbs that are not rhizomatous and do not have turions.

Olive Family. Comprised of 24 genera and about 615 species of woody trees or shrubs. Members of this family have four sepals, four petals, two stamens, and two fused carpets that form a single superior ovary. Many are cultivated for their beautiful and fragrant flowers.

Perch Family. Includes perches, walleyes and darters. Comprised of 11 genera and more than 200 species that prefer fresh and brackish waters of the Northern Hemisphere. Characterized by having a dorsal fin split into two which are normally separated or have a narrow connection.

Northern Lamprey Family. Comprised of 8 genera and about 43 species. Characterized by their elongate, cylindrical shape, no jaw and a disk-shaped mouth. Nonparasitic species live exclusively in freshwater, while parasitic species live in both fresh and marine environments.

(formerly Gramineae) Grass Family. Comprised of about 800 genera and 12,000 species. It is the world's single most important source of food and rank among the top five families of flowering plants in terms of species numbers. They account for 24% of the Earth's vegetation.

Smartweed or Buckwheat Family. Comprised of 48 genera and about 1,200 species. Most are perennial, herbaceous plants with swollen nodes but trees, shrubs and vines are also present. Leaves are simple and arranged alternately on the stems.

Pickerelweed or Water Hyacinth Family. Comprised of 2 genera and about 40 species of mostly perennial, aquatic plants. Members of this family have creeping rootstocks, fibrous roots and leaves in clusters at the base of the plant or borne on branched stems.

Pondweed Family. Comprised of 6 genera and about 110 species of aquatic, monocotyledonous flowering plants. Members of this family develop submerged or floating leaves but frequently have emergent flowering shoots.

Buckthorn Family. Comprised of 52 genera and 950 species of shrubs and trees.

Floating Fern Family. Comprised of 2 genera and about 16 species of floating aquatic plants. Members of this family usually have relatively short stems that appear dichotomously branched, sometimes lacking roots with leaves that are either alternate and 2-lobed with 1 lobe green and floating and the other submerged and white or translucent or in whorls of 3 with 2 leaves unlobed and floating and the 3rd submerged.

A woody plant which is smaller than a tree and has several main stems arising at or near the ground.

Catfish Family. Includes wels and glass catfishes. Comprised of 11 genera and about 170 species that occur across much of Europe and Asia. Characterized by a compressed body; adipose fin is lacking, an anal fin is very long and a short dorsal fin (often lacking) without a spine. 

Quassia Family. Comprised of 25 genera of pantropical trees. Members have leaves that alternate along the stem and are composed of a number of leaflets arranged along an axis.

Sac-like structures which store spores.

A specialized structure in aquatic ferns whose primary function is the production and release of spores.

Water Chestnut Family. Comprised of 1 genera and 2 species of annual, aquatic, rooted or floating herbs. Members of this family have alternate, floating leaves in rosettes and only present at the upper nodes. They also have submerged roots that are paired but not opposite.

Grape Family. Comprised of 12 genera of woody plants, most of them tendril-bearing vines.

The invasive species included on a watch list are priority species that have been identified as posing an immediate and significant threat to natural resources. These species have either never been confirmed in Michigan or have very limited distribution or are localized.