Field Guide

American water willow is common on gravel bars and other stream banks throughout much of Missouri. The dense colonies of emergent stems have leaves like a willow’s, but the two-lipped flowers resemble little orchids.

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.”

An annual, spring-blooming wildflower, Miami mist has loose coils of small blue flowers with distinctive, delicate fringes on the petal lobes.

Japanese stiltgrass is an invasive annual grass with thin, pale green, lance-shaped leaves that are 3 inches long. It has spread to nearly every eastern U.S. state. It forms dense patches, displacing and outcompeting native species for nutrients and light.

Fire pink is a low, clump-forming perennial with many slender, spreading stems that are sticky from glandular hairs, with open clusters of bright red flowers. This showy native Missouri plant is growing in popularity among home gardeners.

Heralding a new growing season, harbinger of spring can bloom as early as January in Missouri. You will probably have to look closely for its small clusters. But after a long winter, what a welcome sight they are!

To distinguish false rue anemone from "true" rue anemone, look for the following: 5 white (not pinkish) sepals, and leaves present on the flowering stems. Confirm your identification by noting that it's growing in a colony (not singly) and is in a moist, low area.

Bloodroot’s pure white petals are even more remarkable given the plant’s bright red sap. This feature, plus the unique leaf shape, make this early spring wildflower easy to identify.