Filtered (377)
Winged pigweed flowers are whitish-green, sessile, and 1/16" across; the flowers have five inward-curving sepals that cover the ovaries, five stamens, and a flattened ovary with 2-3 styles. Flowers may contain only a pistil or both a pistil and stamens; if the latter, the creamy-yellow anthers are prominent.

Cycloloma

Cycloloma atriplicifolium

winged pigweed [Blooms: Jul-Aug]

White prairie-clover produces 1-3" long spikes of flowers and flower buds which open progressively from the base of the spike to the tip. Individual flowers are tiny (about 1/4" across), pea-like, white, with five petals (one much larger than the other four); five white stamens with pale yellow anthers protrude beyond the edge of the flowers.

Dalea

Dalea candida

white prairie-clover [Blooms: Jun-Jul]

At the apex of a purple prairie-clover stem is a 1-2.5" long spike of flowers and flower buds which open progressively from the base of the spike to the tip. Individual flowers are tiny (1/4" across), pea-like, deep magenta in color, with five purple petals (one much larger than the other four). Five stamens with golden anthers protrude beyond the edge of the flowers.

Dalea

Dalea purpurea

purple prairie-clover [Blooms: Jun-Aug]

Shrubby cinquefoil flowers are 3/4-1.5" across, bright yellow, with petals that are circular and overlap, 15-20 stamens with golden anthers, and numerous pistils clumped in the center. The five sepals are largely hidden behind the petals; only the sepal's tips protrude.

Dasiphora

Dasiphora fruticosa

shrubby cinquefoil [Blooms: May-Jul]

Queen Anne's lace is probably the most widely known exotic, a plant introduced from Europe. The inflorescences are the familiar flat compound umbels 2-5" across made up of hundreds of tiny flowers; beneath the umbel are bracts up to 2.5" long, very narrow, and superficially pinnate with three or more lobes. Individual flowers are <1/8" across, with five white petals, a reddish ovary topped by two white styles, and five white stamens. Flowers near the edge of umbels are often asymmetrical, with the petals towards the free edge larger. Not uncommonly, a single flower in the center of the compound umbel has reddish-purple to nearly black petals. The fruit is a ribbed seed with long stiff hairs along the ribs; the entire umbel closes over the immature fruits like a fist to protect them as they mature.

Daucus

Daucus carota

Queen Anne's lace [Blooms: Jun-Aug]

Decodon verticillatus

Decodon

Decodon verticillatus

swamp loosestrife [Blooms: Jul-Aug]

Illinois bundleflower flowerheads are about 1/2" across; they contain about 50 florets with five minute (1 mm long) petals, a single style, and five stamens with yellow anthers. The overall appearance is of a greenish-white fuzzy pincushion.

Desmanthus

Desmanthus illinoensis

Illinois bundleflower [Blooms: Jun-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]

Annual wallrocket flowers occur on the tips of the stems. Each flower has four bright-yellow, oblong petals about 1/4" long with rounded tips; five light-green stamens with yellow anthers; and a green, stout pistil with an expanded, rough-textured stigma. The fruits are elongate (3/4-1"), narrow (1.5-2.5 mm), cylindrical siliques.

Diplotaxis

Diplotaxis muralis

annual wallrocket [Blooms: May-Oct]

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]

Mock strawberry (aka, Indian strawberry) flowers are borne on a single flower stalk. Flowers are 1/2-3/4" across with five sharply-pointed, triangular green sepals as long as the petals and covered with long hairs on their outer surfaces; five bright-yellow petals wider at the tip than the base; 15-25 stamens with bright yellow anthers; and a central yellow receptacle with numerous pistils covering its surface. Just below the sepals are five small bracts (leaves), each with three pointed lobes at its tip; these persist and are present below the sepals on the fruit. The fruit is a bright-red expanded receptacle ~1/2" in diameter, globose or ovoid, that is nestled in the sepals; bright red seeds project from the fruit's surface like pointed bumps. The fruit is edible but tasteless. The word "Indian" in the common name refers to the country "India" rather than Native Americans; "Indian" strawberry was introduced from Asia. The five small bracts (leaves) just below the sepals in mock strawberry, each with three pointed lobes at its tip, are present in both the flowers and the berries and are a diagnostic character of mock strawberry.

Duchesnea

Duchesnea indica

mock strawberry [Blooms: Apr-Sep]

Pale purple coneflower flowerheads sit alone at the top of the stem; there are 12-20 white to pinkish-purple, slender ray florets, with 2-3 notched teeth at the tips; the ray florets initially splay laterally but droop on maturity. The central disc is domed and covered with disc florets with reddish-purple tips.

Echinacea

Echinacea pallida

pale purple coneflower [Blooms: Jun-Jul]

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]

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]