Field Guide

Wildflowers, Grasses and Other Nonwoody Plants

Showing 1 - 10 of 175 results
Photo of showy partridge pea showing flowers, buds, and leaves.
Showy Partridge Pea
Chamaecrista fasciculata (formerly Cassia fasciculata)
The interesting, bright yellow flowers of showy partridge pea are immediately recognizable. At night, the leaflets close and pull upward into a sleeping position.
Photo of dead nettle stalk with flowers
Dead Nettle
Lamium purpureum
Dead nettle, like its close relative henbit, is a common, weedy mint that, in early spring, can carpet wide patches of disturbed ground. Recognize dead nettle by the pyramidal look of its purple- or blue-tinted foliage.
Photo of crown vetch, closeup of a flower cluster.
Crown Vetch
Securigera varia (formerly Coronilla varia)
In summer, you’re almost guaranteed to see big colonies of crown vetch along Missouri's highways. This weedy nonnative plant stabilizes the dirt after road construction but degrades our natural ecosystems.
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 small bluet flower showing purplish center
Small Bluet (Tiny Bluet)
Houstonia pusilla (H. minima; Hedyotis crassifolia)
Small bluet is a mat-forming winter annual that can color entire lawns blue with its tiny flowers. You can start learning to recognize it by noting the reddish-purple color at the center of the blue-violet flowers.
Image of Johnny-jump-up.
Johnny-Jump-Up (Field Pansy)
Viola bicolor
Johnny-jump-up is a flat-faced violet whose small flowers are a washed-out blue or violet with a very light yellow or white center. Look for it in fields, meadows, glades, rights-of-way, disturbed sites, and possibly your front lawn.
Photo of an ebony spleenwort plant growing among moss and fallen leaves
Ebony Spleenwort
Asplenium platyneuron
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.
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.
Photo of an Engelmann’s adder’s tongue with a black background
Adder's Tongues
Ophioglossum spp.
Four species of adder’s tongue ferns occur in Missouri. They don’t look like typical ferns. They have spoon-shaped leaves and an upright spore-bearing stalk.
Western ironweed flowerhead in bloom
Western Ironweed (Baldwin's Ironweed)
Vernonia baldwinii
Ironweeds are tough, grayish-green, branching plants known for their fluffy-looking clusters of reddish-purple florets. They are a familiar sight on roadsides and pastures. Identify western ironweed by the bracts at the base of the flowerheads.
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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!