Field Guide

Jerusalem artichoke deserves a better common name. This tall native sunflower has edible tubers and great crop potential, but it has never been very big commercially. Fortunately, we can enjoy it for free in nature.

A giant of a wildflower, sawtooth sunflower reaches 16 feet in height and sometimes occurs in dense colonies of clumping stems. It has long, coarsely toothed, lance-shaped leaves with winged petioles.

The stout, smooth leaves of pale Indian plantain, with their glaucous-white coating beneath, look almost artificial. They are irregularly shaped, with pointed lobes. At the base of the plant, they can be 6 inches wide. They become gradually smaller up the stem.

Whether you see the wild form or any of the many cultivated varieties, this poster child of the sunflower family cultivates its own sunny impression. Common sunflower is also the state flower of Kansas.

Yellow coneflower is the only coneflower with yellow ray flowers, not pink or purplish ones, which explains the species name, paradoxa. Although cultivated statewide, this prairie and glade wildflower grows natively only in the Ozarks.

Ashy sunflower is relatively short compared to others in its genus. Its leaves are grayish, hairy, sessile, and broadly oval. Its colonies are common in upland prairies in the southern half of the state.

Brown-eyed Susan is a bushy perennial with much-branching stems and plenty of flowerheads. Compared to Missouri’s other Rudbeckia species, its flowerheads are the smallest, growing to only about one inch across.

Black-eyed Susan is a tremendously popular native wildflower for gardening. It’s also commonly planted along roadways, so when it’s blooming, May through October, you’re sure to see it somewhere.

The “disk” of gray-headed coneflower is an inch-long, round knob. It starts off gray, but as the disk florets open and bloom, it turns brown. It grows almost statewide in prairies, glades, pastures, fencerows, and roadsides.