Field Guide

Purple poppy mallow, a native Missouri prairie wildflower, is a favorite of wildflower gardeners. It’s easy to care for and a showy choice for formal or informal landscaping.

Blue sage is easily identified by its wandlike clusters of sky-blue, two-lipped wildflowers. It blooms July–September in prairies, roadsides, and other open habitats.

Not the showiest of wildflowers, American bugleweed will catch your eye with its interesting geometry. The narrow, toothed leaves are opposite on the stalks and occur at right angles to the pair below.

Swamp agrimony has wandlike clusters of tiny yellow flowers atop its stout, upright stems. Its feather-compound leaves have up to 23 narrow, sharp-toothed main leaflets, plus smaller leaflets between the main ones.

Red clover, or purple clover, is the familiar large, pinkish-purple clover that grows in lawns, pastures, and roadsides statewide. A Eurasian native, it was introduced to North America by the middle 1600s.

Round-headed bush clover is a stiffly upright plant that has rounded flower clusters with cream-colored, pea-shaped flowers with purple markings on the banner petal. It grows statewide in open habitats.

White clover is the familiar white-flowering clover that grows in lawns, pastures, and roadsides statewide. A Eurasian native, it was widespread in North America by the middle 1700s.

Common cocklebur occurs statewide in open, disturbed, lowland habitats. It is a common weed in crop fields. It has wide, rough, coarsely toothed leaves; stout, often purple-speckled stems; and characteristic burs with hooked spines.

Bur cucumber is a nonwoody, native, annual vine common in low, moist soils. It can spread across an area 20 feet wide, covering the ground and nearby shrubs. Note its lobed, gourd-family leaves, curly green tendrils, clusters of prickly, green, oval fruits, and 5-lobed, cream-colored flowers.

Violets, as a group, are fairly easy to identify, with their colorful five-petaled “faces” so welcome in springtime. Missouri has 17 species, and some are confusingly similar. This page introduces them as a group.