Field Guide

Wildflowers, Grasses and Other Nonwoody Plants

Showing 21 - 30 of 37 results
Photo of sand vine, leaves with flower cluster.
Sand Vine (Climbing Milkweed)
Cynanchum laeve
Bees, butterflies, and other insects love its nectar, but sand vine is also a problem weed that can be difficult to eradicate. Some people cultivate it as an ornamental. Beekeepers value it as an excellent honey plant.
Photo of common milkweed flower cluster
Common Milkweed
Asclepias syriaca
Common milkweed is famous as a food plant for monarch butterflies. It bears curious seedpods bearing seeds that fly on silky parachutes. It's common statewide in a variety of habitats.
Photo of slender mountain mint flowers
Slender Mountain Mint
Pycnanthemum tenuifolium
Slender mountain mint has smooth, square stems, opposite, narrow leaves, and dense heads of 2-lipped white (or lavender) flowers. Aromatic and minty, it can be grown at home in the herb garden, and its leaves used for seasoning food.
Photo of blue vervain flower clusters in a prairie
Blue Vervain
Verbena hastata
Blue vervain is a tall, slender, erect perennial with branching stems and rough hairs. Its tubular flowers are clustered in many terminal spikes, and can be deep purple, violet, light lavender, or rarely white.
Photo of American germander flowers
American Germander
Teucrium canadense
Like most other mints, American germander has square stems, opposite leaves, and two-lobed flowers. The unusual configuration of the corolla lobes is the key identifying characteristic.
Photo of common gerardia plant with flowers
Slender False Foxglove
Agalinis tenuifolia (formerly Gerardia tenuifolia)
Slender false foxglove, or common gerardia, is a small, showy wildflower with slender, opposite leaves and thin, wiry, branching stems. The small, funnel-shaped blossoms are pink or purple, with an upper lip that arches over the 4 hairy stamens.
Photo of many blooming ashy sunflower plants, showing gray-green leaves.
Sunflowers
Helianthus spp.
Most people recognize sunflowers when they see them, with their bright yellow ray flowers and rather flattened center of dark disk flowers. There are 16 species of Helianthus in Missouri.
Photo of blue-eyed Mary flowers
Blue-Eyed Mary
Collinsia verna
The flowers of blue-eyed Mary are only about a half inch wide, but this pretty wildflower makes up for it by usually appearing in abundance, covering a patch of forest floor with little sky-blue and white “faces.”
Common chickweed plant in bloom
Common Chickweed
Stellaria media
Common chickweed, native to Europe, has been introduced nearly worldwide and is a familiar garden weed in Missouri. It forms spreading mats on the ground and has small flowers with 5 petals, each deeply lobed making it look like 10.
Ground ivy or creeping Charlie flowers and leaves
Ground Ivy (Creeping Charlie)
Glechoma hederacea
Ground ivy, or creeping Charlie, is a creeping, nonwoody plant that often forms loose mats. A native of Eurasia, this member of the mint family has been introduced nearly throughout the United States. It is considered a lawn and garden weed.
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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!