Missouri Department of Conservation

Flowering Spring Trees

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Flowering Spring Trees

Although we're accustomed to celebrating the annual show of fall color, Missouri's flowering trees of spring deserve as much fanfare. The sight of serviceberry and redbud blossoms can banish the last of your winter blues.

All trees produce flowers, but only a few of our native trees are showy enough to attract attention. Some of these are serviceberry, eastern redbud, wild plum, red buckeye, flowering dogwood and hawthorn. Their peak of bloom moves from south to north, and from lower to higher elevation as the average daily temperature rises.

A good time to take a driving tour of these trees is during the last two weeks of April. But any time from March through May, you can look for this parade of showy woodland trees.

Related Information

  • Downy Serviceberry (Serviceberry)

    This tall shrub or small tree is found throughout most of Missouri in open or rocky woods. The showy white flowers are among the first of the early spring trees and shrubs to bloom. The striking flowers, the purplish, often sweet berries and the brilliant fall color make serviceberry an attractive landscaping tree.

  • Eastern Redbud

    This shrub or small tree is distinctly ornamental in spring with small, clustered, rose-purple flowers covering the bare branches before the leaves.

  • Flowering DogwoodA beautiful shrub to small tree with a straggling, spreading crown, Missouri’s official state tree presents lovely boughs of white inflorescences in springtime forests.
  • Hawthorns

    Our state flower, the hawthorn, is solidly represented in Missouri. There are about 100 different kinds of hawthorn that occupy almost every kind of soil in every part of the state. A member of the rose family, it is closely related to the apple.

  • Red BuckeyeRed buckeye and Ohio buckeye are both found in Missouri. You can distinguish red buckeye by its having usually 5 leaflets (not 7), its red (not greenish-yellow) flowers, and the absence of any spines on its fruit hulls. Although both buckeyes are cultivated statewide, red buckeye grows in the wild only in our southeastern counties.
  • Wild Plum

    There are several species of plums growing wild in Missouri, but this is one of the most common. A shrub or small tree with clusters of white flowers in the spring, and small red or yellow fruits in mid- to late summer, it’s a popular tree for landscaping.

Other Content You May Like

  • Black LocustThis tree, a member of the bean family, is easy to appreciate in May and June, when its showy white clusters of flowers perfume the breeze with their sweet smell. Bees like the flowers, too.
  • Pin OakPin oak is one of the easiest trees to recognize by its shape alone: It has a tall, straight trunk, an overall pyramidal or conical shape and, most notably, the branches on the lower third of the tree angle downward. Pin oak grows faster than other oaks and is used extensively for street and yard planting.
  • Canadian HemlockAlso called eastern hemlock, this tree is encountered only in landscaping in our state. But based on one instance in Oregon County, we know it can reproduce and spread here on its own. So if you find it on a hike, it was almost certainly planted there at some point. Look around for a cistern, old home foundation and other persisting garden plants nearby.
  • Tulip Tree (Yellow Poplar, Tulip Poplar)Though it only occurs naturally in the southeastern part of Missouri, the stately tulip tree is planted widely in lawns, parks and cemeteries. The distinctive leaves and tulip-shaped flowers make it easy to identify.
  • Bur OakAmong the many majestic American oaks with legendary and historic value, McBaine, Missouri's state champion bur oak has a 91-inch-diameter trunk, is over three hundred years old, and survived the flood of 1993. Recently, specialists have been fertilizing and aerating its soil, carefully pruning it, and taking twig samples in order to preserve its extraordinary genetic line.

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