Field Guide

Trees, Shrubs and Woody Vines

Showing 51 - 60 of 72 results
Media
Illustration of rough-leaved dogwood leaves, flowers, fruits.
Species Types
Scientific Name
Cornus drummondii
Description
Rough-leaved dogwood is one of Missouri's hardiest shrubs, capable of withstanding cold and drought. The leaves of this thicket-forming species emit a faint odor of sour milk.
Media
Illustration of black locust leaves and flowers.
Species Types
Scientific Name
Robinia pseudoacacia
Description
Black locust, 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.
Media
Illustration of Kentucky coffee tree leaves, flowers, fruit.
Species Types
Scientific Name
Gymnocladus dioicus
Description
There’s no mistaking Kentucky coffee tree when its large, tough seedpods are hanging from its limbs or dropping to the ground below. Unpopular as food with today’s wildlife, these seedpods might have fed mastodons and other large, extinct North American mammals.
Media
Illustration of pin oak leaf.
Species Types
Scientific Name
Quercus palustris
Description
Pin 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.
Media
Illustration of limber honeysuckle leaves, flowers, fruits.
Species Types
Scientific Name
Lonicera dioica
Description
Limber honeysuckle is a native Missourian. It's uncommon and widely scattered in the state, but it does well as a trellis vine. Identify it by its crowded clusters of tubular, yellow or greenish-yellow flowers, tinged with red, purple, or pink, that are noticeably enlarged on one side at the base.
Media
Illustration of grape honeysuckle leaves, flowers, fruits.
Species Types
Scientific Name
Lonicera reticulata (formerly L. prolifera)
Description
One of Missouri's beautiful native honeysuckles, grape honeysuckle is found mainly in the northern two-thirds of the state. In the native plant garden, it is easy to grow, but it is not aggressive like the introduced invasive Japanese honeysuckle.
Media
Illustration of poison ivy leaves, flowers, fruits.
Species Types
Scientific Name
Toxicodendron radicans
Description
Poison ivy is a toxic plant that contains an oil in all its parts that, if you come into contact with it, can cause an intense skin reaction. Learn to recognize it, and sidestep it on your outings.
Media
Illustration of New Jersey tea leaves, flowers, fruits.
Species Types
Scientific Name
Ceanothus americanus
Description
A very small shrub of our native prairies and other open sites, New Jersey tea was used by patriotic American colonists as a substitute for black tea imported from England during the Revolutionary War.
Media
Illustration of ninebark leaves, flowers, fruits.
Species Types
Scientific Name
Physocarpus opulifolius
Description
An attractive shrub with wide-spreading, graceful, recurved branches and bark peeling off in conspicuous thin strips, ninebark is found throughout southern and eastern Missouri on gravel bars, rocky stream banks, and bluffs along streams. It's very popular as a native landscaping shrub, too.
Media
Leaves of riverbank grape in a thick growth of the vines
Species Types
Scientific Name
Vitis species
Description
Eight species of grapes in the genus Vitis are native or naturalized in Missouri. All bear edible fruits. Like their relatives elsewhere, they have important connections to humans and to nature.
See Also

About Trees, Shrubs and Woody Vines in Missouri

There are no sharp dividing lines between trees, shrubs, and woody vines, or even between woody and nonwoody plants. “Wood” is a type of tissue made of cellulose and lignin that many plants develop as they mature — whether they are “woody” or not. Trees are woody plants over 13 feet tall with a single trunk. Shrubs are less than 13 feet tall, with multiple stems. Vines require support or else sprawl over the ground.