Field Guide

'Bradford', a type of Callery pear, has been hugely popular in landscaping, but it can escape and hybridize with relatives. Alarmingly, it has become an invasive plant. Learn more about this problem tree.

Black haw is a small understory tree with beautiful fall color — deep lavender or maroon-purple, finally becoming deep rose-red. Its clusters of blue-black berries, borne on red stalks, happen to be quite tasty. No wonder it has been cultivated as an ornamental since 1727!

Prairie crab apple is an attractive, small, ornamental tree with low, crooked branches and attractive spring flowers. Its hard, bitter fruits can be used in making tasty jellies, cider, and vinegar.

Red mulberry is native to Missouri and North America. You can distinguish it from the introduced white mulberry tree, which is a noxious weed, by its leaves and fruits.

White mulberry was introduced from Asia for its berries and as fodder for an attempted silkworm industry. Birds have helped spread white mulberry so much that in many places it is more common than our native red mulberry.

The white, smooth-looking limbs of sycamore rise over countless streams and river banks, as well as over sidewalks and city streets. The leaves, which somewhat resemble those of maples, can reach remarkably large sizes.

Red maple is one of our most useful — and beautiful — native trees. You can find it in the woods as well as in landscape plantings statewide. Many horticultural varieties are available at nurseries.

In nature, silver maple is a bottomland tree. Silver maples pay for their rapid growth by having rather brittle branches that easily break off in windy and other inclement weather.

Sugar maple is a tree that inspires much “oohing and aahing” during fall color season. Its sap is famous as a source for maple syrup, but its use in landscaping and for furniture is also widespread.

A close relative of water tupelo, black gum is very popular as a landscaping tree. In the wild, it’s usually found in the Ozarks and Bootheel, but with its high popularity in landscaping, you might find it anywhere in the state.