Field Guide

With its large, paddle-shaped, blue-green leaves, powdery thalia looks a lot like the tropical cannas used in landscaping. In late summer, this native pond or marsh plant produces tall spikes of purple flower clusters.

A plant of shorelines and shallow water, tall burhead has clusters of beaked seeds that develop in the fall. Hundreds of these spiny seed heads, held in clusters above the water, make it distinctive.

With their whorl of oval leaves with thick, ridged stems, water plantains look like giant versions of the plantains that commonly appear in yards. Water plantains are water-edge plants that bear large, branching stalks of tiny white flowers.

Water star-grass is an attractive underwater plant. When it flowers, it’s easy to identify. Each bloom is a bright yellow star with six narrow petal lobes, raised just above the water surface.

Blue grama is a native perennial warm-season short grass that forms dense clumps. The flowering stems are 6–12 inches tall, and the short, curving, one-sided seed head resembles an eyebrow. In Missouri, it occurs mostly in our northwestern loess hill prairies.

Bottlebrush grass is a native perennial, tuft-forming wild rye that typically grows in woodlands. The widely spaced spikelets spread away at a right angle from the main flowering stem.

Buffalo grass is a native perennial warm-season short grass that creeps widely by runners and forms dense mats. As a native, it occurs in the prairies in far northwest Missouri, but it now occurs elsewhere in the state and has become popular as a lawn grass.

Canada wild rye can be identified by its bristly seed heads, which curve downward. As the seeds mature, the straight, long awns curve and bend. This is a common native cool-season grass that reaches about 4 feet tall and is highly valued as forage and hay for livestock.

Hairy grama is a native perennial warm-season short grass that forms dense clumps. The flowering stems are 4–16 inches tall, and the short, curving, one-sided, hairy seed head ends in a needle-like point. Very uncommon in our state, it occurs mostly in the loess hill prairies of northwest Missouri.