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The white, waxy, drooping flowers of greater snowdrop are born on leafless scapes (flower stems). The flowers consist of three white outer tepals and three white inner tepals; the outer tepals have distinctly narrowed bases while the inner tepals are more rectangular, usually with a green blotch at their base and tip or a bold green stripe running from base to tip. (Common snowdrop flowers have a single, restricted blotch of green on their inner tepals.) There are six stamens with yellow anthers recessed inside the edge of the inner tepals; the stamens form a ring around the style. The style is slender, cylindrical, and slightly longer than the stamens. The fruit is a spherical to ellipsoid green capsule that splits into thirds when ripe, releasing the seeds.

Galanthus

Galanthus elwesii

greater snowdrop [Blooms: Mar-Apr]

Snowdrop is the earliest blooming flower in Jackson Park (late February); individual blooms can persist for about a month. The bell-shaped flowers hang down on a thin peduncle from a smooth, hairless flower stalk up to 10" long. The flowers have six oval, half-spread tepals; the three outer tepals are white with rounded tips, the three inner tepals are white with green, notched tips and green stripes on the interior surface. There are six stamens with yellow-orange anthers and a single greenish-white style. The fruit is a green, egg-shaped enlarged ovary with a flattened distal tip that dangles form the peduncle. Snowdrops usually exist in a given spot because of a prior deliberate cultivation (in some recorded cases, up to 60 years earlier) and rarely pose an invasion threat; they typically propagate from bulbs. The source of the snowdrops in Jackson Park is unknown.

Galanthus

Galanthus nivalis

snowdrop [Blooms: Feb-Mar]

Field peppergrass tems produce racemes of flowers near their apex; flowers near the top of the raceme are the youngest with older flowers (and later seed pods) further down the inflorescence. The flowers have a calyx of green or purple-green, lance-like sepals, four white, spoon-shaped petals, six stamens, and a single style. The fruits are flattened pods oval in outline with the remnants of the style protruding from a notch in the end (rather like field pennycress, Thlaspi arvense); each seedpod contains two seeds. This is an easy plant to overlook if only because it look like the weed that it is.

Lepidium

Lepidium campestre

field peppergrass [Blooms: May-?]

Peppergrass (aka, Virginia pepperweed) is a weedy, 1.5' tall, rather bushy plant. The flower spikes (racemes) are 2-4" long with tiny (<1/8") white apical flowers forming a larger inflorescence. The flowers have four oblong green or tan sepals with a white edge, half the length of the petals, alternating with four white, triangular petals. There are two stamens with yellow anthers and a stubby (0.2 mm tall) style on a green ovary. Below the flowers, the flower spike is covered with 1/8" wide seedpods on (relatively) long stalks, reminiscent of a bottlebrush; the seedpods are oval with an apical notch (much like half-sized versions of field pennycress (Thlaspi arvense) seedpods) containing two seeds. This species is native to the U.S. The stubby cylindrical inflorescences are and the triangular petals alternating with shorter sepals are diagnostic and distinguish pepper grass from field peppergrass (Lepidium campestre).

Lepidium

Lepidium virginicum

peppergrass [Blooms: Oct-Nov]

Ox-eye daisy is an aggressive plant that was introduced to the U.S. in the 19th century and is now thoroughly naturalized. Flowerheads occur singly at the apex of the stem on a long flower stalk. The flowerheads are about 1.5-2" across with 15-35 brilliant white, oblong ray florets and 120-200 yellow disc florets in a central, flattened disc about 3/4" across. The ray florets are fertile (they bear pistils with a split stigma) while the disc florets have both pistils and stamens. The disc florets are tubular with five tiny lobes at the apex, five stamens, and a single style with a bifurcated tip. The underside of the flower has numerous bracts in 2-4 layers; the bracts are green with purple to brown edges that outline each bract.

Leucanthemum

Leucanthemum vulgare

ox-eye daisy [Blooms: May-Jul]

Despite its common name, summer snowflake starts blooming in the spring (late April), not the summer. It is an introduced species, native to Europe and west Asia, similar in appearance to snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) but larger. The leaves are exclusively basal, up to 12" long and an inch wide, flattened, arching, dark green, sheathing the base of the stems which may be the same length but are usually shorter than the leaves. The flowers dangle from the tips of hollow flower scapes in groups of 2-5, subtended by a single green, sword-shaped, spathe-like bract. Each flower has three sepals and three petals (white, pointed, with a yellowish-green spot near their tips), six stamens with orange anthers, and a single style with a green tip and a tiny stigma. Summer snowflake is toxic if ingested (like many lilies).

Leucojum

Leucojum aestivum

summer snowflake [Blooms: Apr-May]

Liriope spicata is native to east and south-east Asia but was introduced to North America (specifically Illinois and Alabama) as a ground cover — it is perennial and evergreen. A single plant grows 6-18" tall and 12-24" across; it does not tolerate foot traffic. The arching leaves are dark green, grass-like, 18" long and 1/4" across, with minutely-serrated edges and parallel venation. The inflorescence is a spike-like, brownish-white rachis covered with off white or pale lavender flowers. The flowers have six elongate oval tepals, six stamens with yellow anthers, and a stubby white style about the same length as the stamens. The fruit is a berry that is initially green, turning blackish as it matures.

Liriope

Liriope spicata

creeping lilyturf [Blooms: Aug-Sep]

Poet's daffodil is an escapee from domestic gardens. The species is native to Central and Southern Europe; it is said to have been cultivated by the Greeks in the 3rd century BCE. The leaves are basal, blue-green, awl-shaped, up to 20" long and 1/2" wide, parallel-veined with smooth margins. The unbranched stems can get up to 1.5' tall, each with a solitary flower at their apex. The 2-3" diameter flowers have six white tepals with a yellow, crinkled central corona (often red-rimmed) in the form of a cup surrounding the reproductive organs (six stamens, only three of which are easily visible externally, and a single style with a three-lobed stigma). Fruits are rarely produced. The corona is relatively longer and bigger in diameter in wild daffodil than it is in poet's daffodil. Keep pets (and small children) away from poet's daffodil — if ingested, it induces severe vomiting.

Narcissus

Narcissus poeticus

poet's daffodil [Blooms: Apr-May]

Star of Bethlehem's unopened flower buds bear alternating green and white triangles on the enclosing tepals that make the species easy to ID even before the flowers open. Flowers are about 3/4" across with six tepals, white on the top surface and the margins of the underside, green along the centerline of the tepal's underside; six stamens with yellow to brownish anthers whose filaments are flattened to form a visually-striking picket fence topped by sharp points; and a single pistil with a six-ridged yellow ovary and a single yellowish-green style. The fruits are three-celled with six exterior ridges, initially looking like the bottom of a miniature green bell pepper. The flowers produce lots of nectar; they tend to open before noon and close before sunset (or much earlier on cloudy days). Star of Bethlehem is an escapee from cultivation and is competitively quite aggressive. This species produces toxic cardiac glycosides throughout the plant but especially in the flowers and bulbs; it has been reported to have poisoned unwary sheep.

Ornithogalum

Ornithogalum umbellatum

star of Bethlehem [Blooms: May]

Mature wild quinine plants are 2-3' tall. On the flowering stalks (and the side branches) are flat topped clusters of white, button-like flowerheads about 3/8" across. (The Illinois Wildflowers website considers them "similar to a head of cauliflower.") Flowerheads are composed of 15-35 disk florets, often with blackish, club-like stamens poking out; the 5-6 ray florets bear a tiny, cup-shaped petal and a pistil with a bifurcated stigma. No other wildflower in Illinois has flowerheads anything like wild quinine; common and widespread in Jackson Park.

Parthenium

Parthenium integrifolium

wild quinine [Blooms: May-Aug]

Shooting star's smooth, leafless flower stalk is reddish-green, bearing 6-20 (sometimes up to 40) nodding flowers at its apex that are suspended from delicate pedicels. Each flower has a green calyx with five short, triangular green lobes, five white or pale lavender petals reflexed backwards (upwards) and often twisted along their lengths. A "reproductive cone" (five yellow to purple stamens tightly appressed around a single, purplish-green central style) extends down from the yellow petal bases. The fruit is a short, ovoid seed pod, initially green, turning reddish-brown with maturity, 1/4-3/4" long with a pointed tip that is oriented vertically (the curvature of the pedicel reverses after fertilization); it is filled with small, dark seeds. The flowers of shooting star are superficially similar to those of horse nettle (Solanum carolinense) but the latter do not hang from a long stalk like shooting star (and have lots of prickles and spines that shooting star lacks). The convergent evolution of "reproductive cones" in both shooting star and horse nettle is an adaption to increase the efficiency of buzz pollination by large bees, especially bumblebees. The older name for this species ("Dodecatheon meadia") is no longer considered valid.

Primula

Primula meadia

shooting star [Blooms: Apr-May]

triped squill is another early spring wildflower native to western Asia and the Caucasus; it tends to grow in clumps of plants 4-6" across. There are (only) two dark green, basal, hairless leaves up to 6" long and ~1/2" wide that widen towards their tips; the margins are smooth. A cluster (raceme) of 3-6 flowers are present on a stalk ("scape") 4-8" tall; overall, the cluster and scape resemble the related wild hyacinths. Each flower has six white tepals with a medial blue stripe. The filaments of the six stamens are flattened and fused together to form a white central, lobed, hollow cone that surrounds the style; the anthers are yellow and lie just inside the tip of the cone. This plant is one of the earliest to bloom in the spring in Jackson Park, but goes dormant in the late spring, basically biding its time until the next year. It prefers moist, well-drained soils.

Puschkinia

Puschkinia scilloides

striped squill [Blooms: Mar-Apr]

Common arrowhead's flowering stalks are about as tall as the leaves, either angular or round in section. Branches of the inflorescence end in 2-5 whorls of 2-3 flowers; the terminal branch bears 3-9 whorls of 2-3 flowers. Beneath each whorl 2-3, 1/8-1/3" long, boat-shaped, green floral bracts unite. Male (staminate) flowers have 25-30 yellow stamens while female (pistillate) flowers have a central green sphere of carpels; the male flowers are located above the female flowers in each raceme. Perfect flowers (both male and female organs present) do occur but are rare. Individual flowers are about 1-1.5" across with three oval, green sepals and three rounded, white petals about twice the length of the sepals. Male flowers have 7-30 yellow stamens in the center of the flower; female flowers instead have a bur-like green cluster of hundreds of carpels and their spike-like pistils (which have terminal or lateral styles). The pistils form a dense spiral on the surface of the central green mass. After fertilization, the female flowers lose their petals and transform into a bur-like, brown fruit about 3/4" across when mature; the spikes on the bur are individual seeds (achenes) that have a large, fang-like projection at right angles to the main axis of the seed.

Sagittaria

Sagittaria latifolia

common arrowhead [Blooms: Aug – Sep]

Bloodroot flowers are 1.5-3" across with 8-16 (typically 8) bright white petals, numerous stamens with golden yellow anthers, and an oval, green pistil with a pale yellow, two-lobed stigma at its tip. Two light green sepals are present in the floral bud but they drop off as soon as the flower begins to open. After fertilization, the ovary expands into a spindle-shaped seed capsule about 1" long, yellow when mature, that splits to release the seeds. The seeds are disbursed by ants that are attracted by the white, fleshy appendage (an elaiosome) on the bright red seed. The red sap is highly toxic, both externally and internally — it inhibits the cellular Na+/K+ ATPase enzyme and kills the cells. Avoid getting the sap on your skin and certainly avoid getting it in your eyes or on mucous membranes.

Sanguinaria

Sanguinaria canadensis

bloodroot [Blooms: Mar-Apr]

White blue-eyed grass is a native perennial, 6-12" tall with a tuft of basal leaves and flowering stalks that are grass-like (if you squint). The basal leaves are green, 1/8" across, and strap-like; they are shorter than the flowering stalks. The flowering stalks are weakly winged and have a pair of sessile spathes (bracts sheltering the inflorescence) at their tips. The spathes consist of a pair of 1" long reddish or light brownish green bracts backed by a 3" long leafy bract; an umbel of up to six flowers arises between the bracts but only one or two flowers are in bloom at any given time. Each flower is only about 1/2" across and is supported by a 1/2" long pedicel. The flower consists of six white or pale blue tepals with a yellow patch at their bases and narrow, dagger-like tips; a column of yellow or orange-yellow stamens fused along their length almost to the anthers; and a globoid, green ovary covered with fine hairs and sporting a style with three slender lobes. Fertilized flowers produce a ridged, globoid seed capsule, initially green but turning tan to brown as it matures.

Sisyrinchium

Sisyrinchium albidum

white blue-eyed grass [Blooms: May-?]

Water parsnip's upper stems end in 2-5" wide, flat-topped umbels of flowers with numerous (10-20) umbellets, each with 20-35 tiny (1/8" wide) flowers. At the base of the umbel are 6-10 narrow bracts that are curved down towards the stem. Each flower has a 3-5 mm long stalk; a short, light green calyx; five white, heart-shaped petals with incurved tips; five stamens that extend well outside the flower; and an ovary with two diverging styles. The fruits are 3 mm long, slightly laterally compressed, oblong, with strong ribbing; each fruit contains exactly two seeds.

Sium

Sium suave

water parsnip [Blooms: Jul-Aug]

Great Plains ladies'-tresses flowers are arranged in three rows spiraling up around the stem. The petals and sepals are both white with a tinge of yellow on the lower lip (lower petal). The two petals are top and bottom of the bloom, with the lower, ruffled petal extending out and down; the two sepals are narrower than the petals and flank the side of the bloom, sometimes arching higher than the petals. Typically, there is a single stamen; the style is fused to the surface of the lower petal deep in the flower. The base of the flower is nestled between oval green bracts which cup the ovary and taper to a sharp point above the flower. Great Plains ladies'-tresses are probably pollinated by bumblebees, but information is sparse. If you get down on your hands and knees (or, better, lie down beside the plant) and put your nose up against the blooms, it is really true that they smell like vanilla(!). A closely related species, nodding ladies'-tresses (Spiranthes cernua) was once considered to be the same species as Great Plains ladies tresses, but the former still has its basal leaves on blooming and no scent while the latter never has the basal leaves when blooming and the flowers smell like vanilla.

Spiranthes

Spiranthes magnicamporum

Great Plains ladies'-tresses [Blooms: Sep]

The upper stems and branches (some arising from upper leaf axils) of white arrowleaf aster terminate in 6-18" long panicles of flowerheads; the panicles are 2-3 times longer than wide. Each flowerhead is 1/2-3/4" across with 8-15 pistillate, white (rarely pale lavender) ray florets and 10-15 perfect (both stamens and styles present) disk florets. The disc florets are initially yellow but turn pink or light purple with age such that the flowerheads with yellow disk florets are often in the minority on the plant. The individual disk florets strike me as being larger than on many asters. The phyllaries (bracts) covering the base of the flowerhead are narrowly lance-shaped, usually hairless, dark green in the middle tapering to narrow, stiff, green to purplish tips. The fruits are 2 mm long, purplish-brown dry seeds with longitudinal ribs and a tuft of hairs at one end. White arrowleaf aster is similar to Drummond's aster (Symphyotrichum drummondii) but is less hairy and has distinctly different phyllaries. Among asters with white flowerheads, only white arrowleaf aster has heart-shaped leaves. (Other asters with heart-shaped leaves typically have blue to violet flowers.)

Symphyotrichum

Symphyotrichum urophyllum

white arrowleaf aster [Blooms: Aug/Sep – ?]