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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]

American hazelnut flowers. The male inflorescence is a cylindrical catkin that appears in the fall on the most recent year's twigs and then overwinters; in the spring, the catkin elongates (to 2-4" long) and the male flowers (consisting of two tiny bracts and four stamens) open to release their pollen. The female inflorescence looks like a small bud protected by bracts that is located at the branch tip or in leaf axils; it contains several pistillate flowers seen only as red styles/stigmas protruding from the tip of the "bud."

Corylus

Corylus americana

American hazelnut [Blooms: Mar-Apr]

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-?]

Narrow-leaf hawksbeard is a weedy-looking plant that reaches a size of 8-40". Flowers occur in a panicle (usually arising from a leaf axil) with up to 20 dandelion-like flowerheads. Individual flowerheads are about 1" across with 30-70 yellow ray florets (the "petals"); beneath the ray florets are two layers of green bracts — an inner layer of 12-15 3/8" long, sharply-pointed, keeled bracts covered in wooly or short stiff hairs and an outer layer of bracts half the length of the inner layer, sometimes ridged, with hairs like the inner layer. Narrow-leaf hawksbeard can be distinguished from similar dandelion-like flowers (Crepis pulchera, Crepis capillaris, and various sowthistles and hawksweeds) by the presence of auricles on the stem leaves and a layer of appressed hairs on the inside surface of the inner bracts, best seen with a magnifier.

Crepis

Crepis tectorum

narrow-leaf hawksbeard [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]

Shining flatsedge is an attractive plant up to 10" tall with sprawling culms up to 8" long, triangular in section. The flower spike (inflorescence) has 2-7 strikingly laterally-flattened spikelets 1/4-1/2" long; each spikelet has 8-18 reddish-brown floral scales arranged in two opposing rows, each covering a floret consisting of 2-3 stamens, an ovary, and a split style which may protrude 1-2 mm beyond the scales. The plant is wind pollinated.

Cyperus

Cyperus bipartitus

shining flatsedge [Blooms: Aug-Sep]

Yellow nut sedge flower spikes are 2-3" long with spikelets sticking out at 90° to the axis and 90° to each other around the axis (producing four somewhat irregular rows down the axis). The axis itself is flattened with narrow wings. Individual spikelets are 1/2-3/4" long, yellow- or golden-brown, flattened, with from10-30, 2-3 mm long scales, each covering a floret. Each floret has a white, tripartite style with curly ends (the stigmas) and three stamens with yellowish-brown anthers; the flowers are wind pollinated.

Cyperus

Cyperus esculentus

yellow nut sedge [Blooms: Aug-?]

Rusty flatsedge produces an umbel comprised of 3-6 floral stalks 1-4" long bearing clusters of 2-4 floral spikes. (Visually, this looks much like the branch of a fir tree.) Individual spikes are 1/2-1.5" long with individual needle-like spikelets 1/2-1" long pointing in all directions (like a bottle brush). Each spikelet has 8-25 scales sheltering perfect florets (i.e., both three stamens and a tripartite style are present). Spikelets are initially yellow- or whitish green, becoming reddish-brown at maturity. (Thus the "rusty" name.)

Cyperus

Cyperus odoratus

rusty flatsedge [Blooms: Aug-Sep]

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]

Mullein foxglove has an odd-looking but very attractive flower that always makes me think of Burt Lahr's Cowardly Lion in the (1939) Wizard of Oz. Individual flowers are about 1/2-3/4" long and across with a basal green calyx decorated with five blunt teeth. The bright yellow, tubular corolla terminates in five spreading lobes; the upper two lobes are reflected backwards, while the lower three lobes (presumably) function as a landing pad for pollinators (mostly bumblebees). From the front, the opening into the corolla is largely obscured by numerous fine yellow hairs that tend to hide the stamens (present in two distinct lengths) and the single style with a two-lobed stigma.

Dasistoma

Dasistoma macrophylla

mullein foxglove [Blooms: Jul-Aug]

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]