Field Guide

Prairie blazing star has an unbranched stalk with many densely crowded, rose-purple flowerheads. It is a signature wildflower of the tallgrass prairie.

The large, showy, rose-purple flower heads of purple coneflower make it a standout in open woodlands as well as in the home garden. The genus name, Echinacea, means “hedgehog” and refers to the flower’s spiny center cone.

Winged loosestrife is a native Missouri wildflower that should not be confused with the nonnative invasive purple loosestrife. Learn to distinguish between the two so you can report infestations of the latter!

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!

Cardinal flower provides a splash of bright red along streams and rivers, in bottomland forests, in ditches by roads, and in other wet places. It's a long-blooming Missouri native wildflower.

Jerusalem artichoke deserves a better common name. This tall native sunflower has edible tubers and great crop potential, but it has never been very big commercially. Fortunately, we can enjoy it for free in nature.

A giant of a wildflower, sawtooth sunflower reaches 16 feet in height and sometimes occurs in dense colonies of clumping stems. It has long, coarsely toothed, lance-shaped leaves with winged petioles.

The stout, smooth leaves of pale Indian plantain, with their glaucous-white coating beneath, look almost artificial. They are irregularly shaped, with pointed lobes. At the base of the plant, they can be 6 inches wide. They become gradually smaller up the stem.

Whether you see the wild form or any of the many cultivated varieties, this poster child of the sunflower family cultivates its own sunny impression. Common sunflower is also the state flower of Kansas.

Brown-eyed Susan is a bushy perennial with much-branching stems and plenty of flowerheads. Compared to Missouri’s other Rudbeckia species, its flowerheads are the smallest, growing to only about one inch across.