Field Guide

Wildflowers, Grasses and Other Nonwoody Plants

Showing 41 - 50 of 60 results
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 fourleaf milkweed plant with flower clusters
Fourleaf Milkweed (Whorled Milkweed)
Asclepias quadrifolia
One of our earliest blooming milkweeds, fourleaf milkweed bears round clusters of pink or cream-colored flowers. As the common names suggest, at least some of the leaves are arranged in whorls of 4.
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.
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.
Common ragweed leaves
Common Ragweed
Ambrosia artemisiifolia
Common ragweed is instantly recognizable by its ornate, 2–3 times pinnately lobed, hairy leaves. You’ve probably seen it many times and wondered what it was.
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.
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!