Field Guide

Sweet autumn virgin’s bower, also called autumn clematis, is a nonnative, invasive perennial vine that spreads aggressively and climbs rapidly over any support. In late summer, it produces dense clusters of white, sweet-smelling flowers, which mature into fuzzy seed masses.

Dodders are easy to identify, even though at first you might not recognize them as plants. These parasitic plants usually look like a hairlike mass of yellow or orange, leafless, wiry, vining stems wrapping around the stems of other plants.

Purslane can be an aggressive pest in gardens and is one of the worst agricultural weeds in the world. Meanwhile, it’s also a favorite wild vegetable served cooked or raw, and many people cultivate it.

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.

Common chickweed, native to Europe, has been introduced nearly worldwide and is a familiar garden weed in Missouri. It forms spreading mats on the ground and has small flowers with 5 petals, each deeply lobed making it look like 10.

Downy gentian, or prairie gentian, is a beautifully blue or violet-blue wildflower with opposite leaves that blooms September through November in native grasslands.

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.

Mud plantains have glossy, rounded or kidney-shaped leaves and purple or white flowers that have six petal lobes. One petal lobe points downward. They typically grow as emergent aquatic shoreline plants.