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Mouse-ear chickweed has stems up to 1.5' long with long, spreading hairs; the flower stalks and sepals are also covered with fine hairs. The flowers are tiny (<1/4") with five white petals that have deeply notched tips, five sepals as long as the petals, five styles emerging from a green central ovary and ten stamens with yellow anthers. (Other chickweeds have three styles.)

Cerastium

Cerastium fontanum

mouse-ear chickweed [Blooms: Apr-May]

Spring beauty flowers occur in a cluster of 2-10 at the tip of the stem. The flowers are small (1/3-1/2") with long flower stalks; they contain (only) two green sepals, five petals with pinkish-purple stripes on a white background, five stamens with deeply purplish-pink anthers, and a single style that splits into three above its midpoint. The flowers close at night and on cloudy days and nod down; they perk up on reopening. The fruit is an three-part, egg-shaped capsule nestled between the two sepals.

Claytonia

Claytonia virginica

spring beauty [Blooms: Apr-May]

Lance-leafed coreopsis flowerheads are 2-3" across; they have about eight broad, yellow ray florets with 3-5 (usually four) bold, sawtooth lobes at their tips (that may also be subdivided); the numerous disk florets are also yellow, tubular, about 1/4" long with 4-5 tiny lobes.

Coreopsis

Coreopsis lanceolata

lance-leafed coreopsis [Blooms: May-Jun]

Prairie coreopsis flowerheads occur alone or in pairs on 1/2-2" long peduncles attached to the ends of stems. Each flowerhead is about 2" across with 8-12 ray florets; two prominent longitudinal veins divide each ray floret petal into thirds. The disc florets are tubular with 4-5 lobes; they are initially yellow, but turn brownish with age.

Coreopsis

Coreopsis palmata

prairie coreopsis [Blooms: Jun-Jul]

Plains coreopsis flowers are 1-2" across, with 6-12 (usually 8) ray florets, each with three lobes at their tips (center largest). The ray florets are sterile, typically yellow at their tips, transitioning abruptly to a maroon color more basally. The disk florets are perfect (have both anthers and pistils), reddish-brown to maroon with the florets at the edge of the disc with bright yellow highlights (either the anthers on the fused stamens or the split stigma of the pistils); individual florets have four teeth/lobes. The involucre of the flowerhead is often reddish-tinged, particularly obvious when cupping the developing seedhead.

Coreopsis

Coreopsis tinctoria

plains coreopsis [Blooms: Jun-Oct]

Tall coreopsis flowerheads arise from peduncles up to 10" long; the flowerheads are 1.5-2" across with eight sterile, yellow ray florets (each with two deep folds that divide the ray florets longitudinally into thirds) and numerous reddish-purple, fertile disk florets. The corollas of the disc florets are tubular, with 4-5 triangular lobes at their tips, and about 5 mm (~1/4") long; each has five stamens (fused together at their tips) with yellow anthers, and a single bifurcated style with pointed tips.

Coreopsis

Coreopsis tripteris

tall coreopsis [Blooms: Aug-Sep]

Whorled coreopsis' flowerheads are a bright golden yellow, 1-2" across, with eight yellow, elongate egg-shaped ray flowers and numerous (30-40) yellow disk flowers.

Coreopsis

Coreopsis verticillata

whorled coreopsis [Blooms: Jun-Sep]

Silky dogwood flowers occur in flat to convex clusters (cymes) 1-2.5" across. Individual flowers are about 3/8" across with four sharp sepals, four creamy-white, lance-like petals, four stamens about as long as the petals, and a single, stout, green-tipped style arising from an amber ovary. The flower stalks are silky-hairy.

Cornus

Cornus amomum

silky dogwood [Blooms: May-Jun]

Rough-leaved dogwood is a shrub/tree that can be as much as 20' tall. Cymes of white flowers 2-4" across arise from the leaf axils; the upper bounding surface of the cyme is flat or gently rounded. The fruit (a drupe) is white, about 1/4" across, and spherical; as it ripens, the branches of the cyme turn deep red. The fruit is very attractive to wildlife.

Cornus

Cornus drummondii

rough-leaved dogwood [Blooms: ?]

Cornelian cherry dogwood is a European exotic that has been planted in Jackson Park. Flowers appear in umbels before the leaves emerge. The flowers are small (1/8"), with four bright yellow, lance-shaped petals, four stamens, and a cone-shaped, hairy receptacle; the single pistil emerges from the center of the ovaries. The fruit is an oblong, dark red drupe about an inch long.

Cornus

Cornus mas

Cornelian cherry dogwood [Blooms: Apr-?]

Swamp dogwood's flat-topped panicles of flowers are 2-3.5" across. Single flowers are about 1/4" across with a light green, tubular calyx, four lance-shaped white petals, four stamens, and a single style.

Cornus

Cornus obliqua

swamp dogwood [Blooms: Apr-Jun]

Gray dogwood flowers occur in dome-shaped panicles with creamy-white branches 1.5-2.5" across and tall. Individual flowers are 1/4" across with a short calyx bearing four short teeth, four lance-shaped, creamy-white petals, four stamenns with pale yellow anthers, and a central, green-tipped style. The fruit is a small (1/4"), ball-shaped drupe, white when mature; when the fruit is mature, the branches of the panicle turn from white to bright red. Rough-leaved dogwood and red-osier dogwood also produce white fruit, but their panicles are flat-topped, not domed; the panicle branches are also not red in red-osier dogwood, but they are in rough-leaved dogwood so carefully inspect the stems (hairy) to see if the specimen in hand might be the latter.

Cornus

Cornus racemosa

gray dogwood [Blooms: May-Jun]

Red-osier dogwood flowers occur in flat-topped or slightly concave panicles 2-3" across; each flower is about 1/4" across with a small green calyx with four teeth; four white, lance-shaped petals; four stamens longer than the petals; and a single style rising from a reddish ovary. The fruit is a drupe about 1/4" across, white at maturity; the panicle branches remain green (unlike gray dogwood where the panicle branches turn red).

Cornus

Cornus sericea

red-osier dogwood [Blooms: Apr-Sep]

Decodon verticillatus

Decodon

Decodon verticillatus

swamp loosestrife [Blooms: Jul-Aug]

Deptford pink flowers are 1/4-1/2" across with hairy petals that are pink with white dots, 10 stamens with purplish-pink anthers, and two 1 cm long, filamentous styles; the rounded tips of the petals are toothed. The calyx is long (3/4") relative to the size of the corolla, tubular, and hairy with five thin extensions; narrow bracts lie more or less parallel to the elongated calyx. No other local flower looks anything like Deptford pinks.

Dianthus

Dianthus armeria

Deptford pink [Blooms: Jun-Aug]

Purple coneflower flowerheads are solitary, 2.5-4" across, on the end of light green stems with purple streaks. The center of flowerhead is a flattened or (usually) peaked cone of numerous reddish-orange disc florets about 1/4" long, tubular, deep red to purplish-brown in color; stamens bear yellow pollen. The 10-20 ray florets are each 1.5-3" long and 1/4-3/4" wide, initially spreading, but droop as they mature; they are pink to purple, elongate-oval, often with three notches at the tips of the petals.

Echinacea

Echinacea purpurea

purple coneflower [Blooms: Jul-Aug]

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]