Field Guide

The purplish or brownish disk florets of purple-headed sneezeweed set it apart from our other sneezeweeds, whose centers are yellow. Look for it in moist, open areas, mostly in the southern half of the state.

Tickseed sunflower has flattened black seeds that attach themselves to clothing and pets via two needlelike awns. In flower, it grows in massive displays in moist bottomlands.

Narrow-leaved vervain is a short, slender perennial with single stems or with upper stems sparingly branched. Its many small flowers are crowded on narrow spikes. The corollas are tubular, deep lavender or purple, with 5 spreading lobes.

Sometimes called wild oregano, dittany, like true oregano, is a member of the mint family and can be used as a culinary herb and in teas. Look for it on dry, wooded slopes in Ozark counties.

Shepherd’s purse is a plant that started in Europe and western Asia and has been introduced nearly worldwide. Like the common dandelion, it has several adaptations that make it a successful colonizer of disturbed soil.

A spiny annual with bright yellow flowers and dandelion-like leaves, buffalo bur is an introduced member of the nightshade family.

Common ground cherry is closely related to the tomatillo, which you’ve probably seen in the grocery store or had in a delicious salsa verde at a Mexican restaurant. The fruits of ground cherry are edible, too.

Pretty but poisonous, jimsonweed has white goblet-shaped flowers that open around midnight. This native of tropical America was introduced nearly throughout the United States and thrives in disturbed soils.

You can find small colonies of lance-leaved loosestrife nearly throughout the state. It has showy but nodding yellow flowers and opposite, closely spaced, lanceolate or ovate leaves.

A biennial plant with bristly hairs and usually with single stems, viper’s bugloss can grow 2½ feet tall. The flowers are pink in bud, blue to ultramarine later. The protruding stamens are pink.