Field Guide

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.

Orchard grass is a perennial, clump-forming, cool-season grass introduced to American pastures long ago. Identify this common roadside grass by its bluish-green leaves, flattened stalks, and dense, flattened, bushy clusters of spikelets.

A common sight in dry upland Ozark woods, poverty grass is a species you can identify by its leaves alone. The basal leaves persist for several years, becoming dry and curly. Although the flowering stems can be 2 feet high, the basal leaves are only about 5 inches long.

Prairie cordgrass is a native perennial sod-forming grass with flowering stalks up to 7 feet tall. A grassland species, it grows in dense stands in low, damp soils. It’s often called ripgut because of the tiny sharp saw teeth on the leaf edges.

Spring ladies’ tresses is Missouri’s tallest species of spiranthes orchid. It’s one of four species that have their flower clusters in a single, easy-to-discern spiral, but another key feature is that it blooms as early as June and July.

The tuberous grass pink is one of two species of grass pinks in Missouri. It lives in Ozark fens and is rare in the state. Like other orchids in genus Calopogon, its flowers seem upside down.

Downy phlox, also called prairie phlox, is a perennial wildflower with lance-shaped leaves and showy, rounded clusters of pink or lavender flowers. It is similar to blue phlox, but it grows more often in prairies and other open, sunny, and drier habitats.