Field Guide

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.

White avens, a common wildflower in the rose family, may not catch your eye during hikes, but you will probably notice the seeds clinging to your socks when you get home!

Cardinal flower provides a splash of bright red along streams and rivers, in bottomland forests, in ditches by roads, and in other wet places. It's a long-blooming Missouri native wildflower.

Ox-eye is a sunflower lookalike. This member of the sunflower family is not a true Helianthus, but a Heliopsis. This attractive perennial is growing in popularity as a native garden flower.

A giant of a wildflower, sawtooth sunflower reaches 16 feet in height and sometimes occurs in dense colonies of clumping stems. It has long, coarsely toothed, lance-shaped leaves with winged petioles.

Milkweeds are a group of plants that used to have their very own family. Now part of the dogbane family, they’re still a pretty distinctive group.

Bees, butterflies, and other insects love its nectar, but sand vine is also a problem weed that can be difficult to eradicate. Some people cultivate it as an ornamental. Beekeepers value it as an excellent honey plant.

Common milkweed is famous as a food plant for monarch butterflies. It bears curious seedpods bearing seeds that fly on silky parachutes. It's common statewide in a variety of habitats.

The stout, smooth leaves of pale Indian plantain, with their glaucous-white coating beneath, look almost artificial. They are irregularly shaped, with pointed lobes. At the base of the plant, they can be 6 inches wide. They become gradually smaller up the stem.