Field Guide

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.

Ebony spleenwort is a common forest-floor fern with wiry, shiny, dark brown leaf stalks and a ladderlike series of dark green, narrowly oblong leaflets.

Lowland brittle fern, also called southern fragile fern, is an easily recognized species. It’s a common springtime sight in moist forest soils.

Rattlesnake fern rises from the ground with a single stalk. A lacy-cut, bright green fern leaf is stalkless at its tip. At the same joint, a single upright stalk arises that bears clusters of tiny ball-shaped spore cases.

Cut-leaf grape fern appears as a single, leathery fern leaf. Another stalk grows upward from the base and bears yellowish spore cases that resemble tiny bunches of grapes. The fleshy leaves turn reddish brown in fall.

The common dandelion is a well-known common weed of lawns, roadsides, and other disturbed places. Originally from Europe, it occurs nearly worldwide.

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.

The leaf blades of plains, or wayside violet are highly variable, and the plant produces differently shaped leaves as the season progresses. It’s quite similar to cleft violet, but the leaves are smooth and hairless.

Virginia sneezeweed is the rarest of Missouri’s four sneezeweeds. A state endangered and federally threatened species, it occurs in about 60 sites in our southern Ozark counties, primarily in boggy, sinkhole pond habitats.

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.