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The flowers of Dutchman's breeches are unmistakable — white (rarely pink) triangular flowers with two necter spurs angled laterally at 45° to the vertical (the "trouser" legs). Up to a dozen (usually 3-6) 3/4" flowers hang from flower stalks (a raceme) that arch over the leaves 4-8" tall; at the underside of the flowers are two yellow, wing-like lobes with the stamens and pistil emerging from between the lobes.

Dicentra

Dicentra cucullaria

Dutchman's breeches [Blooms: Apr-May]

Cut-leaved teasel behive-shaped flowerheads are 2-4" long and 1.5" across, spiky in every aspect. At the base of the flowerhead are 2-4" long, narrow bracts with sharp points that protrude radially. (These bracts in wild teasel, Dipsacus fullonum, arch up around the flowerhead.) Individual flowers are packed around the flowerhead like cells in a honeycomb, each flower with a 3/4" long bract that tapers to a sharp point. Individual flower are white, tubular, about 1/2" long, flaring out to four lobes; four stamens with white anthers protrude from the tube well beyond its end and there is a single style with a stigma positioned laterally at the style tip. Flowers bloom in a circle progressively from the base of the flowerhead to its tip.

Dipsacus

Dipsacus laciniatus

cut-leaved teasel [Blooms: Jul-Aug]

Flat-topped aster produces stems that are 2-5' tall and unbranched except at the inflorescence, a flat-topped cluster of small (1/2"-3/4") white flowers with few (2-15) broad but sparse ray florets ("petals"). The disc florets are initially yellow but become cream-colored with age. The branching of each stem produces a flat-topped panicle of flowerheads that is 3-12" across. Individual flowerheads are small (1/2-3/4" across) with 5-12 white ray florets around 12-25 yellow disc florets (but these may fade to a yellowish-tan color as the disc florets age). The base of each flowerhead is surrounded by appressed, oblong bracts ("phyllaries") in 2-4 layers ("series").

Doellingeria

Doellingeria umbellata

flat-topped aster [Blooms: Jul – Sep]

Whitlow-grass flowers are tiny (1/8" across) with four green or purplish, hairy sepals half as long as the petals, four white, deeply-cleft (bifid) petals, six stamens with yellow anthers, and a single green pistil. The fruit is a flattened, oblong seedpod, approximately twice as long as wide, <3/8" long, attached to the remnants of the flower pedicels; each seedpod contains ~40 seeds.

Draba

Draba verna

whitlow-grass [Blooms: Apr-May]

Prairie cinquefoil (aka, tall cinquefoil) flowers are about 3/4" across and have white to cream-colored petals, narrowest at the base; the sepals are light green and as long or longer than petals, tapering to a sharp tip; about 20 bright golden-yellow stamens and anthers; and the pistils in the center of the flower also bright golden-yellow. Prairie cinquefoil and sulfur cinquefoil are easy to confuse, but flowers of prairie cinquefoil are cream colored, not yellow and the leaves are pinnately compound, not and palmate.

Drymocallis

Drymocallis arguta

prairie cinquefoil [Blooms: Jun-Jul]

Yerba de tajo's flowerheads arise in groups of 1-3 from the leaf axils on short pedicels; individual flowerheads are 1/4-1/3" across with 8-16 triangular, green, basal bracts, numerous (20+) off-white, thin ray florets with a protruding style, and numerous (15+) light grey to cream disc florets with four tiny spreading lobes, and four protruding light brown anthers and a branching style. Ray flowers are pistillate; disc flowers have both stamens and pistils.

Eclipta

Eclipta prostrata

yerba de tajo [Blooms: Aug-Sep]

Aunt Lucy (Ellisia nyctelea) flowers arise from the leaf axils. The flowers are small and tubular (1/4" wide x 1/2" long); the five petallike lobes are white with purple lines or specks; the five stamens are hidden within the corolla, alternating with the corollar lobes and the style is divided for about half ts length; the sepals are hairy and as large as the petals. The fruit is a 1/4" long hairy, white body that looks like two spheres squashed together, resting on the sepals; it usually contains 4 seeds. This species is very common in late spring in open but shaded areas on Wooded Island. How it acquired the moniker "Aunt Lucy" is obscure.

Ellisia

Ellisia nyctelea

Aunt Lucy [Blooms: Apr-Jun]

Cinnamon willowherb flowers are 1/4-1/3" across and arise from the axils of the upper leaves on 1/2" flower stalks, but the ovary of the flower is a hairy, elongate cylinder slightly wider than the flower stalk; the base of the sepals and petals (less than 1/4" long) may thus be elevated 1.5" above the leaf axil — a tiny flower on the tip of a long cylinder. Above the elongated ovary are four green sepals (with pink or purple tints), four deeply-notched white or light pink petals, a stout pistil with a knobby end, and eight stamens, four long, four short. After fertilization, the ovary elongates to as much as 3" long, dries to a brown color, then splits into two or four segments to release tiny seeds suspended under a tuft of long light brown hairs.

Epilobium

Epilobium coloratum

cinnamon willowherb [Blooms: Jul-Sep]

Broad-leaved helleborine's inflorescence is a 4-12" long raceme with 15-50 flowers, all on one side of the flower stalk. Individual flowers are 1/2-3/4" wide. The petals are greenish-purple with the lower petal forming a pale red bowl; behind the petals, the three sepals are pale green with purple stripes. (The sepals are as long as the petals, as are the bracts below the flowers' stalks.) The fruit is a hairy capsule ~1/2" long, and egg-shaped. Broad-leaved helleborine prefers woodlands.

Epipactis

Epipactis helleborine

broad-leaved helleborine [Blooms: Jul]

Annual fleabane flowers occur in clusters (panicles) in the upper parts of the plant, each 1/2-3/4" across. Disc florets are very small (2-3 mm) and golden yellow; the 50-120 ray florets appear very elongate (1/4-1/2") and narrow (~1-2 mm) and bright white in color. The back of the flower is covered with 2-4 rows of narrow, hairy bracts.

Erigeron

Erigeron annuus

annual fleabane [Blooms: May-Aug]

Philadelphia fleabane stems are usually unbranched except at the inflorescence, a panicle. Flowerheads are 1/2-3/4" across with 150-300 thin white ray florets, often pink or violet tipped, and densely packed around the 1/2" wide disc; the disc florets are yellow, tubular, and 5-10 mm long. The base of the flowerhead is coved by 1-3 series of light green, appressed phyllaries.

Erigeron

Erigeron philadelphicus

Philadelphia fleabane [Blooms: May-Sep]

In Robin's plantain the basal leaves, stem leaves, stems, and flower stalks are all very hairy. Flowerheads arise from the tips of the stems as a group of 1-6. Individual flowerheads are 1-1.5" across; the numerous (50-100) ray florets bear long white (sometimes light pink or violet) petals surrounding a flat, yellow-orange disc of disc florets ~1/2" across. The base of the flower is surrounded with 2-3 layers of light green phyllaries (often with brown or purple tips) which taper smoothy into the stalk.

Erigeron

Erigeron pulchellus

Robin's plantain [Blooms: Apr-May]

Daisy fleabane flowerheads are 1/2-3/4" across with 40-100 thin white or pink-tinged ray florets 4-7 mm long, usually shorter than the disc diameter and numerous yellow disc florets. The disc florets are tiny (1.5-2.5 mm), yellow, and tubular with five lobes on the apical end; there are five stamens and a single, bifurcated style. Around the base of the flowerhead are 2-4 rows of light green, 3 mm long phyllaries often covered with short hairs. Daisy fleabane is similar to Philadelphia fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus), but the latter has larger flowers with more (150-300) ray florets and leaves that clasp the stems.

Erigeron

Erigeron strigosus

daisy fleabane [Blooms: Jun-Sep]

Rattlesnake master inflorescences consist of whitish-green spiky balls 1/2-1" across made up of small florets enclosed by prickly bracts; the florets have five short, rounded petals, five stamens, and a long, divided white pistil that protrudes well beyond the edge of the floret. Note that, if you're bitten by a rattlesnake, this plant will be of no use to you whatsoever.

Eryngium

Eryngium yuccifolium

rattlesnake master [Jun-Sep]

Troutlily's reddish-brown flower stalk arises from the junction of the paired leaves; its tip (and consequently the single flower) is bent down at a 30-45° angle. Each flower is about 1.5" long but may be only 1/2" wide at night or early in the morning or over 1" wide later in the day as the petals spread. Each flower has six white tepals (three petals and three petal-like sepals), six stamens with large yellow anthers, and a single white style with a three-lobed stigma. The fruit is a three-chambered seed capsule about 3/4" long attached to the flower stalk which may nod when immature but the stalk straightens so the capsule is erect when mature.

Erythronium

Erythronium albidum

troutlily [Blooms: Apr-May]

European spindletree flowers (usually less than 7) occur in clusters (cymes) with long peduncles; they have four sepals, four petals, four stamens with white anthers, and a single stout style. The greenish-white or yellow petals on the flowers appear to be very narrow, half the width of the petals of Hamilton's spindletree. (In reality, the petals are curled into a U-shape towards the stem so they only appear narrow.) The sepals are pale green, about half the length of the petals, and bent back beneath the flower. The fruit is pink, not red; the arils covering the seeds are orange, not red or scarlet. European spindletree blooms later in the spring in Jackson Park than Hamilton's spindletree.

Euonymus

Euonymus europaeus

European spindletree [Blooms: Apr-Jun]

Hamilton's spindletree produces clusters of about seven flowers on ~1.5" peduncles that grow out of the leaf axils. Individual flowers are <1/2" across with four white, elongate-oval petals with rounded tips, four stamens with dark purple (approaching black) anthers, and a large green ovary with a single, stout green style. The fruit is a four chambered, deeply-grooved, rose-colored capsule ~1/2" across containing four scarlet, fleshy arils, each surrounding an ellipsoidal, dark brown seed.

Euonymus

Euonymus hamiltonianus

Hamilton's spindletree [Blooms: Maay-Jun]

Tall boneset flowerheads are tiny (1/8" across) with no ray florets and typically only five disc florets. Disc florets are dull white with a tubular corolla and a long bifurcated style that extends well away from the floret; the base of the style is greenish and surrounded by five brown stamens with white tips. The apex of the corolla has five prominant, triangular lobes that give the florets a star-like appearance.

Eupatorium

Eupatorium altissimum

tall boneset [Blooms: Aug-Oct]