Wildflowers, Grasses and Other Nonwoody Plants
Media
Species Types
Scientific Name
Vernonia baldwinii
Description
Ironweeds are tough, grayish-green, branching plants known for their fluffy-looking clusters of reddish-purple florets. They are a familiar sight on roadsides and pastures. Identify western ironweed by the bracts at the base of the flowerheads.
Media
![Photo of tall thistle plants with flowers](/sites/default/files/styles/media_library/public/mo_nature/media/images/2014/01/tall_thistle_01-10-14.jpg?itok=ny_frsV7)
Species Types
Scientific Name
Cirsium altissimum
Description
Tall thistle is a native thistle that can grow to be 10 feet tall! To identify it, notice its leaves, which are unlobed (though they may be wavy or have only shallow, broad lobes), are felty-hairy beneath, and have prickles only along the edges.
Media
![Photo of white heath aster flowers](/sites/default/files/styles/media_library/public/mo_nature/media/images/2013/12/white_heath_aster_12-30-13.jpg?itok=dmae0QIX)
Species Types
Scientific Name
Symphyotrichum pilosum (formerly Aster pilosus)
Description
White heath aster is one of Missouri's most widespread and weedy native asters. It grows in uplands, bottomlands, and nearly all habitats in between. It has a shrubby, wide-branching habit, and the stem leaves are thin and needlelike.
Media
![Tick trefoil plant with flowers](/sites/default/files/styles/media_library/public/mo_nature/media/images/2014/01/tick_trefoil_01-10-14.jpg?itok=JUnjeWzZ)
Species Types
Scientific Name
Desmodium spp. (17 species in Missouri)
Description
Missouri has 17 species of tick trefoils, which live in a variety of habitats. Hikers know them well from their chains of hairy little seedpods that stick to clothing like parasites!
Media
![Photo of a large-flowered gaura inflorescence](/sites/default/files/styles/media_library/public/mo_nature/media/field-guide/Large-Flowered_Gaura_flowers_spent_3-20-17.jpg?itok=_u8O8sRc)
Species Types
Scientific Name
Oenothera filiformis (formerly Gaura longiflora, G. biennis)
Description
Large-flowered gaura is a tall plant whose white flowers turn pinkish as they age. Four petals point upward, then bend back, and 8 stamens droop downward. The flowers look something like small butterflies.
Media
![Photo of yarrow or common milfoil flower cluster](/sites/default/files/styles/media_library/public/mo_nature/media/images/2014/01/yarrow_01-14-14.jpg?itok=aA6iMxg4)
Species Types
Scientific Name
Achillea millefolium
Description
Native to North America, Europe, and Asia, yarrow has been used for medicine and magic for millennia. This aromatic plant has fine, hairy, fernlike leaves and flat-topped clusters of little white flowers.
Media
![Giant ironweed flower cluster](/sites/default/files/styles/media_library/public/2021-06/Ironweed_banner_narrow_horizontal_6-27-21.jpg?itok=kwPou1-7)
Species Types
Scientific Name
Vernonia spp.
Description
Five species of ironweeds live in Missouri. Starting in the middle of summer, they bear showy clusters of magenta or purple flowerheads at the branching tops of upright stalks.
Media
![Curlytop ironweed flower cluster viewed from the side](/sites/default/files/styles/media_library/public/2021-06/BANNER_Curlytop_Ironweed_Vernonia_arkansana_8-17-14.jpg?itok=_ZFrFETM)
Species Types
Scientific Name
Vernonia arkansana
Description
Curlytop ironweed is one of Missouri’s five species of ironweeds. It’s easy to identify because of its tapering, curling, threadlike involucral bracts. Also, it is usually a smooth, hairless plant.
Media
![Round-headed bush clover blooming on a prairie](/sites/default/files/styles/media_library/public/2021-05/Round-Headed_Bush_Clover_8-15-15.jpg?itok=ZYLBgq-8)
Species Types
Scientific Name
Lespedeza capitata
Description
Round-headed bush clover is a stiffly upright plant that has rounded flower clusters with cream-colored, pea-shaped flowers with purple markings on the banner petal. It grows statewide in open habitats.
Media
![Whorled milkweed flowers.](/sites/default/files/styles/media_library/public/mo_nature/media/images/2015/01/whorled_milkweed_flowers_a._verticillata_1-14-15.jpg?itok=TYCFDUU-)
Species Types
Scientific Name
Subfamily Asclepiadoideae
Description
Milkweeds are a group of plants that used to have their very own family. Now part of the dogbane family, they’re still a pretty distinctive group.
See Also
About Wildflowers, Grasses and Other Nonwoody Plants in Missouri
A very simple way of thinking about the green world is to divide the vascular plants into two groups: woody and nonwoody (or herbaceous). But this is an artificial division; many plant families include some species that are woody and some that are not. The diversity of nonwoody vascular plants is staggering! Think of all the ferns, grasses, sedges, lilies, peas, sunflowers, nightshades, milkweeds, mustards, mints, and mallows — weeds and wildflowers — and many more!