Field Guide

Common prickly ash is a thicket-forming shrub or small tree. Its compound leaves resemble of those of ash trees, but it’s in a different family. Pairs of stout, curved prickles occur at each node. Scattered statewide, but less common in the Ozarks.

American smoke tree is a tall shrub to small tree whose unusual flower stalks look like smoke from a distance. In Missouri it occurs naturally in the western Ozarks, but people use it in landscaping statewide.

White fringe tree is a shrub or small tree that is native to southwest and southeast Missouri. Its fragrant, showy clusters of white, drooping, fringe-like flowers make it a popular for landscaping.

Eastern leatherwood is a native shrub of bottomlands, stream banks, and bases of bluffs. It has unusual little dangling yellow flowers, and its twigs are surprisingly flexible.

In Missouri, Ashe’s juniper is uncommon and only found in a few southwestern counties; our populations represent the northeastern tip of its range. Here, it is much less widespread than its close relative eastern red cedar.

Missouri has five species of maples that are either native or naturalized, plus several that are known only in cultivation. Maples are important members of native ecosystems. They also provide stunning fall color, welcome shade in summer, commercially important lumber, and sap for syrup.

American beautyberry is a many-branched shrub that bears attractive rounded clusters of purple berrylike fruits in the axils of the leaves in late summer and fall. A critically imperiled species in Missouri, it is also a popular native shrub for landscaping.

Southern black haw is an irregularly branched shrub with shiny, dark green, opposite leaves whose lower surface is paler with scattered rusty hairs, especially on the veins. It bears clusters of white flowers, which turn into bluish-black fruits.

Black raspberries resemble blackberries, but when ripe, the fruits fall away as a caplike unit from the receptacle. Leaflets appear white underneath. The canes are whitish-coated when young; they arch down and take root at the tips. Native and scattered statewide.

Missouri has seven species of elms that grow in natural settings. Elms have tough, shock-resistant wood. In the past, some species were favorite shade trees, which is why so many towns have Elm Streets. But elms have suffered for a century from a devastating fungal disease.