Field Guide

Wildflowers, Grasses and Other Nonwoody Plants

Showing 1 - 10 of 174 results
Photo of showy partridge pea showing flowers, buds, and leaves.
Showy Partridge Pea
Chamaecrista fasciculata (formerly Cassia fasciculata)
The interesting, bright yellow flowers of showy partridge pea are immediately recognizable. At night, the leaflets close and pull upward into a sleeping position.
Photo of yellow violet plant with flower
Yellow Violet
Viola pubescens (formerly V. pensylvanica)
The yellow violet is Missouri's only all-yellow violet. This native wildflower is less common than violet violets. Look for it in low woods, rich slopes, and wooded floodplains.
Photo of blue-eyed Mary flowers
Blue-Eyed Mary
Collinsia verna
The flowers of blue-eyed Mary are only about a half inch wide, but this pretty wildflower makes up for it by usually appearing in abundance, covering a patch of forest floor with little sky-blue and white “faces.”
Photo of Miami mist flowers
Phacelia (Miami Mist)
Phacelia purshii
An annual, spring-blooming wildflower, Miami mist has loose coils of small blue flowers with distinctive, delicate fringes on the petal lobes.
Photo of violet wood sorrel plant with flowers
Violet Wood Sorrel
Oxalis violacea
Missouri has one introduced and four native wood sorrels. Violet wood sorrel is the only one that has magenta or lavender flowers.
Photo of Japanese stiltgrass
Japanese Stiltgrass (Eulalia)
Microstegium vimineum
Japanese stiltgrass is an invasive annual grass with thin, pale green, lance-shaped leaves that are 3 inches long. It has spread to nearly every eastern U.S. state. It forms dense patches, displacing and outcompeting native species for nutrients and light.
Walking fern colony growing on a boulder at Clifty Creek CA showing numerous long tapering fronds
Walking Fern
Asplenium rhizophyllum (syn. Camptosorus rhyzophyllus)
One of Missouri’s most distinctive ferns, walking fern walks. Its long, triangular leaves take root at the elongated tips, forming new plantlets.
Photo of purple cliff brake growing from a rock crevice, with a hand propping up one of the fronds
Purple Cliff Brake
Pellaea atropurpurea
Purple cliff brake is a fern that grows from crevices in limestone and dolomite rocks, or in rocky soils near them. Its leathery, blue-gray leaflets, which are oval to lance-shaped, make the fronds seem not very fernlike.
Photo of an Engelmann’s adder’s tongue with a black background
Adder's Tongues
Ophioglossum spp.
Four species of adder’s tongue ferns occur in Missouri. They don’t look like typical ferns. They have spoon-shaped leaves and an upright spore-bearing stalk.
Photo of false Solomon's seal plant with flower cluster
False Solomon's Seal (False Spikenard)
Maianthemum racemosum (formerly Smilacena racemosa)
False Solomon's seal can be distinguished from "true" Solomon's seal by differences in flower shape and placement, the color of the berries, and some characteristics of the leaves.
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About Wildflowers, Grasses and Other Nonwoody Plants in Missouri

A very simple way of thinking about the green world is to divide the vascular plants into two groups: woody and nonwoody (or herbaceous). But this is an artificial division; many plant families include some species that are woody and some that are not. The diversity of nonwoody vascular plants is staggering! Think of all the ferns, grasses, sedges, lilies, peas, sunflowers, nightshades, milkweeds, mustards, mints, and mallows — weeds and wildflowers — and many more!