Field Guide

Showy clusters of blue-violet, two-lipped flowers adorn downy skullcap. This native mint is found mostly in the southern half of the state.

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.

A common component of high-quality upland prairie, American feverfew, or wild quinine, is a native wildflower that was used to treat fevers or malaria. It's in the composite family.

Plainleaf pussytoes, named for its fuzzy flower heads, is one of the few flowering plants in Missouri that grows well in dry and shaded areas. It’s also an indicator of acid soils.

Common in almost any kind of moist, wet or muddy habitat, fog fruit bears interesting round, purple flower heads that are ringed by small, white or pinkish flowers.

One of Missouri's five types of echinacea, pale purple coneflower is distinguished by its white pollen, drooping pink or purple ray flowers, and narrow, tapering leaves. It occurs nearly statewide, except for the Bootheel lowlands.

Large-flowered gaura is a tall plant whose white flowers turn pinkish as they age. Four petals point upward, then bend back, and 8 stamens droop downward. The flowers look something like small butterflies.

Oblong-leaved, or aromatic aster, is well-named. It is notable for its fragrant foliage and its crowded, stalkless, clasping, hairy, narrow, oblong leaves. Like our other native asters, it blooms in late summer and fall.

The antique belief that this plant might repel fleas gives the fleabanes their name. There are more than 170 fleabanes in the genus Erigeron in North America. This one is scattered to common nearly throughout Missouri. Native Americans used this species medicinally for a variety of ailments.

Prairie alum root lifts its small, greenish, bell-shaped flowers high on a hairy stalk. The leaves are all in a basal clump, have long stalks, and look a bit like maple leaves.