Field Guide

Wildflowers, Grasses and Other Nonwoody Plants

Showing 1 - 10 of 202 results
Photo of American water willow closeup on flowers
American Water Willow
Justicia americana
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.
Common violet, closeup of flower
Common Violet
Viola sororia
The common violet can be violet, white, or white with violet mottling or spots. One of 17 species or violets in Missouri, it occurs statewide in a variety of habitats. Note its heart-shaped or rounded, scalloped leaves, and (usually) the presence of hairs on stems and/or foliage.
Photo of blue-eyed Mary flowers
Blue-Eyed Mary
Collinsia verna
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.”
Photo of Miami mist flowers
Phacelia (Miami Mist)
Phacelia purshii
An annual, spring-blooming wildflower, Miami mist has loose coils of small blue flowers with distinctive, delicate fringes on the petal lobes.
Photo of Japanese stiltgrass
Japanese Stiltgrass (Eulalia)
Microstegium vimineum
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.
Photo of common scouring rush, many stems in a colony
Horsetails (Scouring Rushes)
Equisetum (3 spp. in Missouri)
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.
Photo of a sensitive fern, vegetative leaf
Sensitive Fern
Onoclea sensibilis
The leaves of sensitive fern usually wither quickly upon the first frost, leaving the upright, beadlike, spore-bearing spikes to be noticeable.
Photo of a northern maidenhair fern
Maidenhair Ferns
Adiantum spp. (2 in Missouri)
Maidenhair ferns are distinctive and beautiful. Their leaflet veins divide by twos over and over, forming a fan pattern.
Walking fern colony growing on a boulder at Clifty Creek CA showing numerous long tapering fronds
Walking Fern
Asplenium rhizophyllum (syn. Camptosorus rhyzophyllus)
One of Missouri’s most distinctive ferns, walking fern walks. Its long, triangular leaves take root at the elongated tips, forming new plantlets.
Photo of lowland brittle fern fronds and fiddleheads growing in woods
Lowland Brittle Fern (Southern Fragile Fern)
Cystopteris protrusa (formerly C. fragilis var. protrusa)
Lowland brittle fern, also called southern fragile fern, is an easily recognized species. It’s a common springtime sight in moist forest soils.
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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!