Filtered (205)
Creeping bellflower stems produce a terminal raceme of blue to purple flowers up to a foot long with all the flowers nodding towards the ground and all on the same side of the stem. Individual flowers are 1-1.5" long, borne on a short pedicel with a narrow, lance-shaped bract at its base. Each flower is bell-shaped with five pointed, recurved lobes with hairy margins and five green sepals at its base. There are 5 short curly, yellow stamens and a long style that emerges from the bell; the style has a three-part stigma at its end.

Campanula

Campanula rapunculoides

creeping bellflower [Blooms: Aug-Sep]

New Jersey tea flowers occur in panicles ("puffballs") up to 5" long and 3" across on peduncles up to 8" long arising from the tip of stems or axils of a leaf. Flowers are 1/4-3/8" across on 1/4-3/4" stalks; each flower has five triangular white sepals folded inwards towards the flower center; five widely spreading, white spoon-shaped petals with narrow bases and broad tips (tips curled in to heighten the "spoon" impression) emerging from between the incurled sepals; five stamens with whitish-purple anthers; and a three-part style.

Ceanothus

Ceanothus americanus

New Jersey tea [Blooms: Jun-Jul]

American bittersweet side branches occasionally produce panicles of flowers (up to 6" long) at their tips. Male flowers are about 1/4" wide with five light green petals with jagged or undulate margins, five green sepals, and five stamens with yellow anthers and a narrow style rudiment.

Celastrus

Celastrus scandens

American bittersweet [Blooms: Jun-Jul]

Common hackberry flowers may be staminate (male), pistillate (female), or perfect (both), all on the same tree. Flowers are about 1/4" across and bloom before the leaves open, often high in the tree (thus, I have no pictures yet). All flowers are wind-pollinated, yellowish-green with 4-6 spreading sepals joined at their bases; there are no petals. Male flowers have 4-5 stamens with green or yellow-brown anthers; female flowers have a green ovary with a large two-part, densely fuzzy style like an umbrella beneath the ovary. Perfect flowers have both.

Celtis

Celtis occidentalis

common hackberry [Blooms: Apr-May]

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]

Wild chervil upper stems terminate in up to three clusters of 3-7 small, white flowers (right image). Individual flowers (upper left) are tiny (1/8" across), each with five white petals, five stamens, and a cylindrical green ovary bearing a split style; the sepals are highly reduced. After fertilization, both the cylindrical ovary and the flower stalk elongate; mature fruits (lower left) are usually hairless, about 1/4" long, and contain a single seed.

Chaerophyllum

Chaerophyllum procumbens

wild chervil [Blooms: May-?]

Lamb's quarters produces inconspicuous star-shaped, yellow-green flowers, <1/8" across, sessile on flower stalks in round, tight clusters; the flowers have no petals, five stamens with yellow anthers, and a single divided style at the tip of a round, green ovary, all cupped in a five-lobed, mealy-white, calyx. The flowers are wind-pollinated and can aggravate hay fever symptoms.

Chenopodium

Chenopodium album

lamb's quarters [Blooms: Jul-Sep]

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]

Upper stems of poison hemlock bear compound umbels 2-5" wide of tiny (1/8") white flowers with five spoon-shaped petals (one often larger than the others), usually with a longitudinal fold and notched; below the umbels are oval bracts with elongate tips, not divided like the leaves.

Conium

Conium maculatum

poison hemlock [Blooms: May-Jun]

Cockspur hawthorn produces flat-topped panicles of flowers 2-3" across that arise from leaf axils; the panicle branches are light green and hairless. Individual flowers are 1/2" across; they have a green calyx with five teeth, five spreading white petals, 10-20 stamens with pink or pale-yellow anthers, and a pistil with 2-3 styles. At least in Jackson Park, the upper surface of the receptacle at the base of the pistil is a shiny greenish-yellow to reddish-yellow. The flower's scent is not pleasant to humans but bees and syrphid flies are not deterred. The fruit is a small (1/2" across) crabapple-like pome, red at maturity.

Crataegus

Crataegus crus-galli

cockspur hawthorn [Blooms: May-Jun]

Downy hawthorn produces clusters of 5-17 flowers; the flower stalks are reddish-green and hairy. Individual flowers are 3/4-1" across with five green, triangular sepals with glandular hairs along the margins that are fused at their base; five round, white petals; 17-20 stamens with pale yellow or white anthers; and 4-5 styles. In Jackson Park, the top of the receptacle (at the center of the flower around the bases of the styles) is reddish-green to deep red and shiny.

Crataegus

Crataegus mollis

downy hawthorn [Blooms: Apr-May]

Common hawthorn produces broad, dense, flattened clusters (cymes) of five to fifteen flowers. Individual flowers are up to 1/2" wide with five reflexed sepals, five white petals, 15-20 stamens with red to purple anthers, and a single style. At least in Jackson Park, the upper surface of the receptacle at the base of the pistil is a shiny yellowish green.

Crataegus

Crataegus monogyna

common hawthorn [Blooms: May-?]

Spring crocus (Crocus vernus) is native to alpine regions of Europe, but widely escaped from domestic gardens in the U.S. Given its early blooming and short duration, it probably qualifies as a "spring ephemeral." The plant is short (4-6") but blooms before most other plants emerge. the leaves are 3-6" long and less than 1/4" wide, dark green with a distinctive silver-white medial stripe. Flowers are up to 6" tall, bell-shaped, 1-1.5" wide with six white to purple tepals in two overlapping whorls of three; the stamens are white with long yellow or orange anthers, the styles are yellow-orange, three-lobed, with a fringe of narrow processes. You'll know it when you see it.

Crocus

Crocus vernus

spring crocus [Blooms: Mar-Apr]

Honewort's inflorescence is a compound umbel 1.5-3" across of tiny (1/8") flowers. Each flower has five stamens with creamy-yellow anthers, and one or two light green, conical pistils; the five petals are usually curled in. In Jackson Park, flowers of honewort have two conical styles, whitish to greenish, that are shorter than the petals.

Cryptotaenia

Cryptotaenia canadensis

honewort [Blooms: May-Jun]

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]