Field Guide

What could be cooler than finding a green dragon? This leafy green plant with a long, noodly spadix is closely related to Jack-in-the-pulpit. It occurs in the same habitats but is less common and easily overlooked.

Yellow lady’s slipper is found statewide. It is among our showiest native orchids, and suffers from its popularity. Although orchids rarely survive transplanting, people try digging them up anyway.

When you consider the negative effects this plant has on natural habitats, and how hard it is to control or eradicate, you almost want to rename it “leafy scourge”! This invasive plant is spreading in our state. Learn how to identify it.

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.

Wood nettle, or stinging nettle, often forms dense stands in bottomland forests, streamsides, and other places. There, canoeists, anglers, and others try to avoid touching its stinging hairs!

Pretty but poisonous, jimsonweed has white goblet-shaped flowers that open around midnight. This native of tropical America was introduced nearly throughout the United States and thrives in disturbed soils.

Queen Anne’s lace is many things to many people — roadside wildflower, noxious introduced weed, wild edible, medicinal herb, delightful cut flower. In Missouri, it blooms May through October.

Water smartweed can live submerged in water, or on wet banks or other soggy ground, yet it can also live in merely moist areas. The stems often sprawl as they grow, taking root at the swollen nodes. The small, pink flowers develop in long, erect clusters.

Wild comfrey has large basal leaves that are soft, hairy, and elliptical with long petioles — they look like hounds’ tongues! The upright flowering stalk has few leaves and looks like a wand.

Conspicuous in early spring, wood spurge is a dainty species with loose clusters of small, light green flowers. Look for it in woods, valleys, streamsides, and waste areas in Ozark landscapes.