Field Guide

Missouri boasts nine native species of blazing stars, or gayfeathers, in genus Liatris. These showy, upright, unbranching spikes of magenta-pink wildflowers bloom in sunny habitats.

Cylindrical blazing star is one of several Missouri native species of blazing stars, or gayfeathers. It is widely scattered in the Ozarks and eastern Missouri. Identify it by its bracts, which are pressed against the base of the flowerhead, accentuating its cylindrical look.

Scaly blazing star is one of several Missouri native species of blazing stars, or gayfeathers. It is scattered nearly statewide. Identify it by its long-pointed flowerhead bracts that spread or curl sharply away.

Prairie dogtooth violet, or prairie trout lily, is a small, early blooming lily that lives in prairies and glades. Its flowers are white and its narrow leaves are folded lengthwise and seem waxy on the undersurface.

Bladderworts are Missouri’s only carnivorous plants. They are branching, rootless, aquatic plants that tend to grow in thick, floating mats under the water. The leaves are threadlike. The flowers resemble tiny yellow snapdragons and are held above the water.

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.