Field Guide

Wildflowers, Grasses and Other Nonwoody Plants

Showing 1 - 7 of 7 results
Photo of Solomon’s seal flowers and leaves
Solomon's Seal
Polygonatum biflorum
Solomon's seal grows statewide in moist, rich earth. The greenish-white flowers dangle like little bells beneath the leaves, under the gracefully arching stems.
Photo of wake robin, or trillium, plant with leaves and flower
Wake Robin (Trillium)
Trillium sessile
The flower of wake robin, or trillium, has 3 petals and 3 sepals, and 3 leaves that subtend the solitary flower. The petal color varies in this common woodland spring wildflower, but it is most commonly brownish or maroon.
Photo of pokeweed plant with dangling stalks of ripe and unripe berries.
Pokeweed
Phytolacca americana
A tall, smooth, branching plant with red stems and juicy, dark purple berries, pokeweed is both toxic and a traditional edible potherb called poke salat. It is common statewide.
Photo of soapweed, a type of yucca
Yuccas (Spanish Bayonet; Soapweed)
Yucca smalliana, Y. glauca, and Y. arkansana
Three species of yucca grow wild in Missouri. Spanish bayonet was introduced from the Southwest and has escaped from cultivation, but our two soapweeds are native.
Photo of white avens flower and upper stem leaves.
White Avens (Red Root)
Geum canadense
White avens, a common wildflower in the rose family, may not catch your eye during hikes, but you will probably notice the seeds clinging to your socks when you get home!
Photo of hogwort plant showing upper stem leaves and flowers.
Hogwort (Woolly Croton)
Croton capitatus
Hogwort is fuzzy, densely covered with whitish hairs. A common but often overlooked plant in pastures, prairies, ditches, and roadsides, it’s usually less than 18 inches tall.
Rope dodder stems
Dodders
Cuscuta spp.
Dodders are easy to identify, even though at first you might not recognize them as plants. These parasitic plants usually look like a hairlike mass of yellow or orange, leafless, wiry, vining stems wrapping around the stems of other plants.
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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!