Field Guide

Wildflowers, Grasses and Other Nonwoody Plants

Showing 61 - 70 of 73 results
Photo of Culver's root plant with flowers
Culver’s Root
Veronicastrum virginicum
Culver’s root is a tall, graceful perennial with flower clusters that look like candelabras. The white flowers are packed together in slender, brushlike spikes. The leaves are in whorls, well-spaced along the stalk.
Closeup of single flowerhead of a New World aster with yellow disk florets and lavender ray florets
New World Asters (American Asters)
Symphyotrichum spp. (formerly Aster spp.)
Missouri has 24 species of New World asters in genus Symphyotrichum. Most have purple or white ray flowers and yellow disk flowers that turn reddish over time. Most bloom in late summer and fall.
Cobaea beardtongue blooming at Painted Rock Conservation Area
Cobaea Beardtongue (Purple Beardtongue)
Penstemon cobaea
Cobaea beardtongue, or purple beardtongue, is probably Missouri’s showiest species of penstemon. Native to Missouri's southern Ozarks, it is grown statewide for its beauty, and because pollinators like it. It may be purple or white.
Top of a prairie blazing star’s floral spike, with the sky and prairie visible in the background
Blazing Stars (Gayfeathers; Liatris)
Liatris spp.
Missouri boasts nine native species of blazing stars, or gayfeathers, in genus Liatris. These showy, upright, unbranching spikes of magenta-pink wildflowers bloom in sunny habitats.
Giant ironweed flower cluster
Ironweeds
Vernonia spp.
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.
Virginia knotweed, young plant with two leaves showing characteristic brownish markings
Virginia Knotweed (Jumpseed)
Persicaria virginiana (formerly Polygonum virginianum)
Virginia knotweed, or jumpseed, is common yet rarely contemplated. It might be most eye-catching in spring, when its new, oval leaves are marked with brownish Vs. In summer, it blooms with tiny, teardrop-shaped white flowers on wandlike stems.
Red, or purple, clover flower head vied from the side
Red Clover (Purple Clover)
Trifolium pratense
Red clover, or purple clover, is the familiar large, pinkish-purple clover that grows in lawns, pastures, and roadsides statewide. A Eurasian native, it was introduced to North America by the middle 1600s.
Photo of blue phlox (wild sweet William) plant with flowers
Blue Phlox (Wild Sweet William)
Phlox divaricata
A common, eye-catching native spring wildflower common in woodlands, blue phlox occurs nearly statewide.
Photo of perennial or summer phlox flower cluster
Perennial Phlox
Phlox paniculata
Perennial phlox has big, showy clusters of flowers. A tall, late-blooming native wildflower of woodland borders, steamsides, and gravel bars, it is also an old-fashioned garden favorite.
Whorled milkweed flowers.
Milkweeds
Subfamily Asclepiadoideae
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!