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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]

Wormseed mustard stems are medium green, angular or grooved, covered relatively sparsely with tiny appressed hairs. At the tip of the stem is a raceme of yellow flowers, each 1/4-1" long and 1/4" across; more peripheral flowers in the raceme bloom first. Each flower has four pale green sepals 2-3 mm long, four yellow petals 3-5.5mm long, six stamens with yellow anthers (two stamens shorter than the other four), and a single style. The basal rosette withers about the time the seeds begin to form, while flowers are still present. Seedpods are four-angled siliques that grow directly from the center of the flowers. Wormseed mustard prefers open, disturbed habitats.

Erysimum

Erysimum cheiranthoides

wormseed mustard [Blooms: Apr-?]

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]

Late boneset's inflorescence is a flat-topped or shallowly-domed panicle with numerous flowerheads. Individual flowerheads are composed of 12-15 greyish-white disk floret (ray florets are absent) about 1/4" long with a tubular corolla with five small, triangular apical lobes and a long white bifurcated style extending well out from the floret surrounded by five black stamens. Leaf venation, lack of leaf hairs, and and smaller flowerheads (~5-8 florets) distinguish tall bonset (E.altissium) from late boneset (E. serotinum; 12-15 florets).

Eupatorium

Eupatorium serotinum

late boneset [Blooms: Aug-Oct]

Flowering spurge "flowers" are deployed in an open, flat-topped inflorescence (panicle); individual "flowers" are 1/4-3/8" across, a cup-like, five-lobed cyathium (unique to euphorbs) containing the five white "petals" (actually white bracts), a green ring of nectar glands around the base of the "petals," and the stamens or styles. Male flowering spurge cyathia have three stamens, each with a white filament and a yellow anther; female flowering spurge cyathia have both an ovary with a tripartite style with six stigmas, and three (sterile?) stamens. (If you're confused about the architecture of cyathia, see seaside sandmat (Euphorbia polygonifolia) for a clearer example.) After fertilization, the fruit develops as a unmistakable three-celled, bulbous green capsule on a short stalk in the middle of the original flower with the remnants of the style at its tip.

Euphorbia

Euphorbia corollata

flowering spurge [Blooms: Jun-Oct]

Lance-leafed goldenrod is only distantly related to the other goldenrods (all genus Solidago) found in Jackson Park. The inflorescence is a flat-topped or slightly domed panicle. Flowerheads are cylindrical, minute (1/8" across, the smallest of the goldenrods), with 15-25 ray florets with minute petals and 5-10 disc florets. The outermost bracts around the base of the flower are green-tipped. Flowers across the inflorescence bloom at different times so the inflorescence often looks a bit shopworn. Lance-leafed goldenrod refers wet, soggy habitats.

Euthamia

Euthamia graminifolia

lance-leafed goldenrod [Blooms: Jul-Sep]

Black bindweed flowers develop in singletons or pairs from the leaf axils or directly from the stem. Flowers are 1/8-1/4" long; they have 3-5 greenish-white, white, or light purple petal-like tepals, the outer three tepals with a ridge or keel down the midline on the outer surface. Six to eight stamens with purple anthers surround fused green styles with a dome-shaped stigma in the middle of the flower; the flower usually opens only partially (like a tulip). The fruit is three-sided, with a tubercle-covered surface, about 1/4" long, black when fully mature. Black bindweed is very similar to climbing false buckwheat (Fallopia scandens).

Fallopia

Fallopia convolvulus

black bindweed [Blooms: Jun-Jul]

Climbing false-buckwheat stems are round, angular, or ridged in section, often with hairs on the ridges. Racemes of flowers arise from the leaf axils; the flower stalks are usually vertical, 3-8" long and bear both erect flowers and drooping fruits. Individual flowers are greenish-white, about 3/16" across have eight stamens with white anthers and an ovary bearing a tripartite style; the thee outermost tepals (petals) have obvious wings, unsually with an undulating margin; the inner two tepals are simple ovals. The fruit (~3/8" long) has a greenish center with three white wings; the 3 outer tepals with enlarged wings enclose the seed. (The fruit resembles a much-enlarged version of the fruit of curly dock (Rumex crispus).) Climbing false-buckwheat is very similar to black bindweed (Fallopia convolvulus) but is far more common in Jackson Park.

Fallopia

Fallopia scandens

climbing false-buckwheat [Blooms: Aug-Sep]

Queen-of-the-prairie produces over 100 flowers (1/3" wide) in the panicle with five triangular, purplish sepals, five rounded pink petals with narrow bases, 15+ long white stamens with pink anthers, and a ring of 5-15 curved styles with large, disk-like, white stigma. The fruits are striaght or slightly curved stout banana-like spindles 1/4-1/2" in diamater on a narrow stalk.The numerous pink flowers with their long protruding stamens tipped with pink anthers gives the inflorescence the air of pink clouds, or possibly cotton candy. Rare, but unmistakeable if you spot it. Critically imperiled in Illinois (and elsewhere in the Midwest).

Filipendula

Filipendula rubra

queen-of-the-prairie [Blooms: Jul-Aug]

Indian blanket flowers are 1-2.5" across with 6-15 sterile ray florets; the petals are 3/4-1.25" long, red or brownish-red with yellow tips; the base of the petal is narrow and the tips of the petals are divided into three sharp or rounded teeth or lobes. Disc florets are brown, numerous (40-100+), with tubular corollas that may be orangish, red, brownish-red, or purple with five tringular, hairy lobes at the apex; the flowers are perfect with both stamens and styles.

Gaillardia

Gaillardia pulchella

Indian blanket [Blooms: Jul-Oct]

Dyer's greenweed is a woody shrub that grows 2-3' tall, introduced from Europe and Siberia (and probably escaped from gardens). The multiple stems are green and round in section. The leaves are 1/2-1" long and about half as wide, alternate, sessile, lance-shaped or oblong, hairy on the upper surface, with smooth margins. The inflorescence is a 1-3" wide raceme. Individual flowers are 1/2-3/4" across, bright yellow, with a strong resemblance to tick-trefoils — a banner held at about a 45° angle, two wings and two parallel keels. The fruit is a 1-3" long pea-like pod containing 8-12 black, shiny seeds. The common name derives from the use of this plant to produce a yellow dye.

Genista

Genista tinctoria

dyer's greenweed [Blooms: Oct]

Cut-leaved crane's-bill's very attractive flowers occur in pairs. The base of the flower is covered by five green sepals the same length as the petals, covered externally in glandular hairs; the tips of the sepals are drawn out into a short (1-2 mm) awn that is scarlet-tipped. The five petals are a deep pink to purple in color; there are five pink stamens with purplish-yellow anthers; the five styles produce a deep pink, star-shaped stigma at their tips. The fruit consists of five hairy spheres around the base of an elongate "crane's bill" which splits explosively when ripe into five strips attached at their distal ends, flinging the seeds far and wide. Carolina crane's-bill (Geranium carolinianum) has white to pinkish flowers with sepals longer than the petals; cut-leaved crane's-bill has deep pink to purple flowers with sepals the same length as the petals.

Geranium

Geranium dissectum

cut-leaved crane's-bill [Blooms: May-Jun]