Field Guide

Wildflowers, Grasses and Other Nonwoody Plants

Showing 1 - 10 of 24 results
Western ironweed flowerhead in bloom
Western Ironweed (Baldwin's Ironweed)
Vernonia baldwinii
Ironweeds are tough, grayish-green, branching plants known for their fluffy-looking clusters of reddish-purple florets. They are a familiar sight on roadsides and pastures. Identify western ironweed by the bracts at the base of the flowerheads.
American, or common boneset, flower clusters and upper stem leaves
American Boneset (Common Boneset)
Eupatorium perfoliatum
American, or common boneset has small, white flowerheads in flat-topped clusters at the top of the plant. The leaves are hairy, narrowly triangular, and in opposite pairs fused around the stem.
Photo of a tall thoroughwort plant in bloom.
Tall Thoroughwort (Tall Boneset)
Eupatorium altissimum
A stout perennial that can grow to 6 feet tall, tall thoroughwort is a member of the sunflower family that has dull white flowers and distinctive leaves that are opposite, slender, very short-stalked, and with three quite noticeable veins.
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.
Closeup of single flowerhead of a New World aster with yellow disk florets and lavender ray florets
New World Asters (American Asters)
Symphyotrichum spp. (formerly Aster spp.)
Missouri has 24 species of New World asters in genus Symphyotrichum. Most have purple or white ray flowers and yellow disk flowers that turn reddish over time. Most bloom in late summer and fall.
Lamb's quarters plant growing in bare, disturbed soil
Lamb's quarters (Pigweed)
Chenopodium album
Lamb’s quarters won’t win any beauty contests for its flowers, but it merits an award for being both a common garden weed as well as a nutritious leafy green valued around the world.
Eastern figwort flowers
Eastern Figwort (Carpenter's Square)
Scrophularia marilandica
Eastern figwort occurs statewide in rich woods, woodland borders, and bottomlands. It’s usually 2-5 feet high, has square stems and lance-shaped, toothed leaves, and bears spreading clusters of small, green scoop-shaped flowers with brown petal lobes.
Missouri ironweed cluster of blooming flowerheads
Missouri Ironweed
Vernonia missurica
Missouri ironweed is one of Missouri’s five species of ironweeds. Most common in the eastern half of the state, it is a hairy ironweed with a relatively large number of florets per flowerhead.
Giant ironweed flower cluster
Ironweeds
Vernonia spp.
Five species of ironweeds live in Missouri. Starting in the middle of summer, they bear showy clusters of magenta or purple flowerheads at the branching tops of upright stalks.
Curlytop ironweed flower cluster viewed from the side
Curlytop Ironweed (Arkansas Ironweed)
Vernonia arkansana
Curlytop ironweed is one of Missouri’s five species of ironweeds. It’s easy to identify because of its tapering, curling, threadlike involucral bracts. Also, it is usually a smooth, hairless plant.
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!