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Eastern cottonwood is dioecious; flowers are either male or female and occur on separate trees. The flowers, whether staminate or pistillate, are produced on catkins 2-3" long; the flowers are wind pollinated. Male catkins are produced in clusters of 2-4 near branch tips; they are bright red or yellow, cylindrical, and densely covered with male florets. The male florets have a fringed bract at their base, above which is a basal disc with 30-40 reddish or yellowish stamens. Female catkins are solitary (not in groups), cylindrical, and green, covered with numerous female florets on slender petioles. Each female floret rests on a fringed bract above which is a dish-shaped three- or four-carpelled basal disc with a single, oval pistil about 8 mm long with 2-4 apical, yellowish, flattened stigmas with undulate margins. After fertilization, the female catkins elongate to a length of 4-6" while individual ovaries enlarge; at maturity, each fruit splits to release 30-50, 2 mm long, seeds suspended on cottony hairs. The seeds are both wind and water dispersed.

Populus

Populus deltoides

Eastern cottonwood [Blooms: Apr-May]

Swamp rose flowers arise from the upper stems as single flowers or corymbs of 2-4 flowers. The flowers are 1.5-3" across, with five green, lance-shaped sepals, five pale- or rosy-pink, oval or heart-shaped petals, a ring of about two hundred yellow stamens, and a flat central disc of 24-50 styles that is pink or orange-red (much less often, yellow). The sepals and pedicels are covered with glandular hairs. The fruits are typical rose hips but are quite small (3/8" across, pea-sized), bright red when ripe.

Rosa

Rosa palustris

swamp rose [Blooms: May-Jun]

Rugosa rose flowers are 2-3" across; they have five sepals covered with glandular hairs, five magenta (more rarely pink or white), wrinkled petals, over 100 yellow stamens, and a yellow, flat stylar disc in the center of the flower. The fruits are typical rose hips about 1" across, bright red when ripe. Rugosa rose prefers sandy habitats and sites prone to water stress (e.g., roadsides where salt washes off the roads). The wrinkled leaves and magenta petals, profuse straight thorns/prickles, and large rose hips are distinguishing characters of rugosa rose.

Rosa

Rosa rugosa

rugosa rose [Blooms: May-Jul]

Pale dock produces an inflorescence 4-12" long at the tip of the stem; branches in the inflorescence are few but are densely covered with numerous whorls of 10-20 small (1/8-1/4" long), green or yellow-green flowers drooping on 1/8-1/4" long pedicels. Individual flowers have six green tepals (three sepals and three similar petals) that spread at flowering to expose either six stamens or three styles, but close again after pollination. (Flowers are either pistillate (female) or staminate (male) and are wind pollinated.) After fertilization of the pistillate flowers, the fruit — a single seed in the middle of three equally-spaced wings — replaces the flower. Pale dock's seeds can persist in the soil for at least ten years.

Rumex

Rumex altissimus

pale dock [Blooms: May-Jun]

The inflorescence at the tip pf the stem in curly dock produces branching clusters with numerous whorls of 10-25 flowers dangling from slender pedicels. Flowers are tiny (1/8-1/4"), red- or yellow-green, with six tepals (three sepals and three very similar petals), three styles, or six stamens, or both; the flowers droop from a 1/4" pedicel. (The flowers are either pistillate (female), staminate (male), or perfect (both male and female organs). The flowers are wind pollinated. The tepals spread out when the flowers are mature, exposing the stamens and/or styles, then close up after pollination. The fruit is a single seed sandwiched in the center of three heart-shaped, papery membranes (derived from the tepals) set at 120° from each other, dark brown when mature. Note that more mature curly dock fruit can take on a distinct reddish tint, superficially looking like bitter dock fruit, but curly dock fruits will never show the long tooth- or finger-like projections from the edges of the wings that bitter dock exhibits.

Rumex

Rumex crispus

curly dock [Blooms: May-Jun]

The inflorescence of bitter dock is a panicle of whorled racemes up to 1' long. The greenish-red flowers droop from 1/2" pedicels. Individual flowers are 1/4" long with six tepals (six sepals and six similar petals) with pistillate (female) and male (staminate) flowers mixed in each inflorescence. Pistillate flowers have a single pistil, three styles with fringe-like, divided stigmas, and inner tepals that are (often) red; staminate flowers have six stamens and dull yellow inner tepals. After fertilization, the inner tepals of the pistillate flowers enlarge and surround an expanding, hard-shelled, three-sided seed with three membranous wings, each wing with 2-4 spiny teeth along their free edges. The fruits turn bright red as they mature.

Rumex

Rumex obtusifolius

bitter dock [Blooms: May-Jul]

Prairie willow is dioecious — plants produce either all male or all female inflorescences in the form of short catkins produced from one-year-old branches before the leaves emerge; a tiny black or bicolored bract covered in long, dense white hairs is present at the base of both male and female catkins. The florets lack both sepals and petals but both have a basal, hairy bract (regardless of sex). Male catkins are 1/4-1.25" long, elongating as they mature. Initially the male catkins are silvery (from long hairs) but become yellow or reddish from the numerous anthers. Individual male florets consist of a hairy, basal bract and a pair of stamens with cylindrical anthers initially purple, turning yellow, red, or orange. Female catkins are 1/2-3" long, also elongating as they mature. Individual female florets consist of the hairy bract and a hairy green ovary 4-8 mm long with an elongate beak densely covered with wooly hairs; a pair of stigmas protrude from the tip. After fertilization, the female florets transform into 1/4-1/2" long capsules, light brown at maturity, that split in two to release seeds surrounded by long, cottony hairs.

Salix

Salix humilis

prairie willow [Blooms: Apr-May]

Late figwort's inflorescence (a panicle) gives rise to short, spreading, sparse branches covered in glandular hairs, bearing a 3/8" long, shiny tubular flower whose outside surfaces are reddish-purple to reddish-green and inner surfaces are reddish brown (upper and lateral lobes) or greenish yellow (lower lobe). Four yellow, fertile stamens and a single blunt, slender style hug the floor of the flower, the style protruding further than the fertile stamens. A single sterile stamen (a "staminode") is located along the upper interior of the flower. The sterile stamens are yellow or green with a broad tip in early figwort (S. lanceolata); they are reddish-brown to purple and narrow in late figwort (S. marilandica). The fruit is a teardrop-shaped capsule, dark brown when mature, that splits in two longitudinally to release the numerous tiny seeds.

Scrophularia

Scrophularia marilandica

late figwort [Blooms: Jul-Aug]

Royal catchfly's bright red flowers are restricted to the upper regions of the plant as clusters arising from the tips of stems. Individual flowers are 3/4-1" across, have an elongate (1"), narrow, cylindrical calyx with 10 longitudinal ridges, five narrow red or scarlet petals that flare from the tip of the calyx, and stamens with gray anthers that protrude well beyond the opening to the calyx. There are three corkscrew-shaped, threadlike styles that develop after the stamens have matured; like the stamens, they protrude well outside the calyx opening. The fruit is a 1/2" long capsule, open at the top, with 6-8 spreading teeth around the lip. Royal catchfly is hummingbird and butterfly pollinated.

Silene

Silene regia

royal catchfly [Blooms: Jul-Aug]

Some of coralberry's leaf axils produce dense cluster of greenish, sessile flowers. Individual flowers are 1/4" long consisting of a short green calyx with five teeth and slightly swollen basally; a stubby, tubular corolla with five bluntly-rounded lobes; five stamens with white anthers; and a pale green ovary with a hairy style. The anthers barely extend to the edge of the corolla lobes; the stigma is inset slightly deeper. The fruit is a single globoid berry containing two seeds, 1/4" long and reddish-purple when mature.

Symphoricarpos

Symphoricarpos orbiculatus

coralberry [Blooms: Aug-?]

Alsike clover is an exotic perennial native to Europe. Despite the scientific name ("hybridus"), it is not a hybrid. (Linnaeus thought it was a hybrid of red and white clover. It isn't.) The plant is 6-24" tall, with occasional branches along the stems. One- to three-inch-long flower stalks arising from the leaf axils terminate in a flowerhead 1/2-3/4" across; florets tend to be white on the top of the flowerhead and reddish-purple to pink on the bottom, but may all be reddish. Individual florets are 1/4" long with five petals in a pea-like bloom. They have a sharply pointed standard (the major vertical petal, perpendicular to the keel), two petals that make up the keel, and two lateral petals that flank the keel. Ten stamens and a single pistil are hidden inside the keel. Unlike red clover (T. pratense) and white clover (T. repens), there are no pale chevron-shaped markings on the leaflets.

Trifolium

Trifolium hybridum

alsike clover [Blooms: May-Jul]

The upper stems of red clover end in 3/4-1" wide pinkish-purple (not actually red) flowerheads, usually with 1-3 leaflets or a compound leaf and some pointed bracts immediately below the bloom. The florets are tubular modification of a typical pea-like flower with five petals; the upper petal (the standard) is slightly longer than the other four petals and has a slightly pointed tip. Red clover is easily identified by the pinkish-purple flowerheads, the leaflets inserted just below the flowerheads, and the white chevrons on the leaflets.

Trifolium

Trifolium pratense

red clover [Blooms: Apr-Jun]