Field Guide

White snakeroot looks very similar to thoroughworts, but it has triangular leaf blades that are more broadly angled or rounded at the base. White snakeroot is common statewide. It’s a toxic plant if eaten, so it’s good to be able to identify it.

American, or common boneset has small, white flowerheads in flat-topped clusters at the top of the plant. The leaves are hairy, narrowly triangular, and in opposite pairs fused around the stem.

A stout perennial that can grow to 6 feet tall, tall thoroughwort is a member of the sunflower family that has dull white flowers and distinctive leaves that are opposite, slender, very short-stalked, and with three quite noticeable veins.

Although the funnel-shaped, 5-lobed flowers look something like the petunias you find at garden centers, our wild petunia is not related to them. This ruellia often has crinkled hairs in 2 narrow, lengthwise bands on opposite sides of the stalk.

Anyone who’s seen what purple loosestrife has done to New England and the Northeast can tell you how invasive this plant is. Learn how to identify it, so you can report any findings to the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Similar to kudzu, Chinese yam is an aggressive vine that overtakes nearly everything within reach that stands still long enough! Learn more about this invasive plant — and please don’t plant it!

Swamp milkweed has pink flower clusters at the tips of its tall stalks. The leaves are opposite, narrow, and up to 6 inches long. It grows in moist bottomland soils.

False dragonhead is called "obedient plant" because when you push one of the flowers sideways, it "obediently" stays in place for a while.

Indian hemp is a shrubby, upright perennial with opposite branches and milky sap. This native plant can be a troublesome weed in crop fields and gardens, but Native Americans used its tough, fibrous stems for rope-making.

Large stands of wind-pollinated giant ragweed commonly form in disturbed areas, causing late-summer misery in the form of hay fever for many Missourians.