Field Guide

Wildflowers, Grasses and Other Nonwoody Plants

Showing 1 - 10 of 12 results
Photo of common scouring rush, many stems in a colony
Horsetails (Scouring Rushes)
Equisetum (3 spp. in Missouri)
Horsetails, or scouring rushes, are in the genus Equisetum. They’re easy to recognize with their jointed, hollow stems. Like ferns, they reproduce via spores instead of flowers and seeds.
Photo of several cattail flowering stalks
Cattails
Typha spp.
Missouri’s cattails are all tall wetland plants with narrow, upright leaves emerging from a thick base, and a central stalk bearing a brown, sausage-shaped flower spike.
Photo of chara, an alga with stemlike and leaflike structures
Chara (Muskgrass; Stonewort)
Chara spp.
These aquatic algae look like regular vascular plants. Chara has a crisp, gritty texture, a musky odor, and gray-green, needlelike structures that resemble leaves.
Photo of water milfoil plants along the shore of a pond
Water Milfoils
Myriophyllum spp.
Water milfoils are feathery aquatic plants that grow rooted in shallow water. Their tips emerge above the waterline and bear bladelike, toothed leaves.
Photo of southern naiad aquatic plant with a penny for scale
Naiads (Water Nymphs; Waterweeds)
Najas spp.
Naiads are slender, narrow-leaved plants that grow completely under water and are rooted to the bottom. They never have broad, floating leaves or conspicuous flowers or seed heads.
Photo of coontail aquatic plant with penny for scale
Coontail (Hornwort)
Ceratophyllum demersum
Coontail, a common submerged aquatic plant, got its name from the crowded upper leaves, which make the stem tip appear bushy like the tail of a raccoon.
Photo of several big bluestem seed heads against a blue sky.
Grasses
All true grasses (species in the grass family)
Missouri has 276 species in the grass family, including well-known crop plants and our native prairie grasses. Distinguishing between the species can be difficult, but it’s easy to learn some basics about the group.
Photo of path rush, closeup showing drying fruits.
Rushes
Juncus spp. and Luzula spp.
Missouri has 24 species in the rush family. Distinguishing between these grasslike plants can be tricky, but it’s easy to learn some basics about the group.
Photo of eastern woodland sedge plant growing among leaf litter.
Sedges
Carex, Schoenoplectus, Scirpus, and other genera
Missouri has more than 200 species in the sedge family. Distinguishing between these grasslike plants can be difficult, but it’s easy to learn some basics about the group.
River oats flowers, stem, and leaves
River Oats
Chasmanthium latifolium
River oats is a native cool-season grass that is common nearly statewide in bottomlands, stream valleys, and other moist places. The open, nodding, flattened flower and seed clusters are distinctive.
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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!