Wildflowers, Grasses and Other Nonwoody Plants
Media
Species Types
Scientific Name
Cypripedium reginae
Description
Showy lady’s slipper is a beautiful and rare wildflower. This orchid can be more than 3 feet tall, with showy flowers with a pink-suffused, inflated lower lip. In Missouri, it's restricted to the southern portion of the Ozarks.
Media
Species Types
Scientific Name
Galearis spectabilis (formerly Orchis spectabilis)
Description
Showy orchis is a perennial wildflower of rich, moist, shady woods, slopes, ravines, and stream valleys, often found with other spring wildflowers. It’s about 6 inches tall when it produces its beautiful pink and white flowers.
Media
Species Types
Scientific Name
Cypripedium candidum
Description
Of Missouri’s three species lady’s slipper orchids, small white lady’s slipper is the only one with white “slippers,” which are shiny and look almost like glazed porcelain. Today, it’s known from only one location in the Ozarks.
Media
Species Types
Scientific Name
Hexalectris spicata (syn. Bletia spicata)
Description
Crested coral root is an orchid that lacks chlorophyll, so none of it is green. It obtains nutrients from fungi and decaying organic matter. Compared to our other coral roots, it is taller and has larger flowers. It grows in Ozark habitats.
Media
Species Types
Scientific Name
Corallorhiza wisteriana
Description
Spring coral root blooms in April and May. Except for a few small sheathing bracts along the stem, it has no leaves. The purplish or brownish flowers are in a raceme at the tip of the stem. Each flower’s lower lip is white with purple markings.
Media
Species Types
Scientific Name
Viola sagittata
Description
Arrow-leaved violet, or arrowhead violet, is a native Missouri perennial spring wildflower that grows in prairies, glades, and woodland openings. It has distinctive arrowhead-shaped leaves.
Media
Species Types
Scientific Name
Lithospermum canescens
Description
Hoary puccoon's small, tubular flowers arise on spirally condensed stalks that uncoil and elongate as more flowers open toward the tip. Occurs nearly statewide in prairies, glades, pastures, roadsides, and other open areas.
Media
Species Types
Scientific Name
Castilleja coccinea
Description
The bright red of Indian paintbrush colors our native prairielands, reminding us (through its name) of the Osage, Kansa, Pawnee, and many other people who lived in these prairies before the pioneers.
Media
Species Types
Scientific Name
Viola pedata
Description
In springtime, bird's-foot violet can make a glade or bluff top heavenly with its pretty lavender and purple "faces." When you see your first big colony of bird's-foot violets, you will probably never forget it.
Media
Species Types
Scientific Name
Packera glabella (formerly Senecio glabellus)
Description
Butterweed, one of Missouri’s seven species of ragworts or groundsels, is the only one that is an annual. It grows in colonies, at times covering acres of floodplain. Stems are heavily ridged and usually inflated or hollow. It blooms April–June.
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!