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Wild sweet potato is a twining vine that can reach 20-30' long, completely covering the adjacent vegetation. The flowers are funnel-shaped with five shallow lobes, 2.5-3" across, white with a reddish-purple or rosy throat. There are five stamens of different lengths with filaments up to an inch long and whitish-pink anthers; there is a single whitish style with a two-lobed stigma. The flowers tend to bloom early in the day, later if cloudy. Individual flowers are short lived but this plant is a prodigious producer of blooms; it is the largest morning glory in Jackson Park. The "sweet potato" is a modified root up to 20" long and weighing 30 pounds; it is edible, but only barely.

Ipomoea

Ipomoea pandurata

wild sweet-potato [Blooms: Jun-Aug]

Kochia's greenish-yellow flowers are 4-5 mm across. Perfect flowers have five green, bluntly-triangular sepals that develop wings along their outer face, no petals, five stamens each with two large yellow or pink anthers, and a divided style; pistillate flowers lack the stamens. The flowers are wind-pollinated. The fruit is a flattened, five-lobed, winged capsule nestled in the sepals that contains a solitary seed. ITIS says that the accepted name for this plant is Kochia scoparia; World Flora Online claims the proper binomial is Bassia scoparia.

Kochia

Kochia scoparia

kochia [Blooms: Jul-Aug]

Prickly lettuce flowerheads dandelion-like, a distinctive pale lemon-yellow color, and 1/4-1/2" across; there are about 20 ray florets with squared, serrated ends (with five teeth), five stamens with yellow anthers, and a bifurcated style whose base is surrounded by the anthers. The seeds are attached to the tuft of hairs by a beak up to twice as long as the seed. Prickly lettuce is superficially similar to Canada lettuce (Latuca canadensis), but the latter has no spines on the leaves and seeds that are attached to a tuft of hairs by a beak no longer than the seed. Prickly lettuce is the closest wild relative to domestic lettuce (L. sativa).

Lactuca

Lactuca serriola

prickly lettuce [Blooms: Jul-Sep]

Wood nettle plants may be either monoecious (separate male and female flowers on the same plants) or unisexual (only male or only female flowers). Male flowers are produced from branching cymes 4" long that arise from the leaf axils; female flower are produced from branching cymes, also 4" long, localized near the apex of the stem. Male flowers are small (1/8" across), consisting of five narrow, greenish-white sepals and five stamens; there are no petals but there is a vestigial pistil. Female flowers are about the same size (1/8" across) with four green sepals (two larger, two smaller) that look like tiny leaves with undulating edges and an ovary with a long, white, vertically-oriented J-shaped style that tapers to a point. The female flowers are wind-pollinated. The fruit is circular in outline but very flattened, green turning black with maturation, on a short winged stalk; the remains of the style are attached at the free end of the fruit.

Laportea

Laportea canadensis

wood nettle [Blooms: Aug-Sep]

Round-headed bush-clover present stout, tall (2-5') green columns in the middle of open habitats. The stem is unbranched below the midpoint (except at the inflorescences), round in section, grooved, and densely covered in white hairs. At the apex of the main stem and on some of the side stems are slightly elongated balls of flowers 3-5" long and half as wide with numerous clover-like white flowers nearly hidden among leafy bracts; brown flowerheads and stalks may persist through winter. Each clover-like flower is about 1/4" wide and 1/2" long with five petals, one large vertical upper petal ("standard") and two perpendicular side petals ("wings") are visible; the other two petals (forming the keel) are hidden from view by the wings. There are ten stamens, all but one with their filaments fused together, and a single style with a small stigma. The petals are white with a patch of reddish-purple near the junction of the three visible petals. The fruit is a fuzzy pod less than 1/4" long containing a single seed. Round-headed bush-clover is a perennial with a tap root that may go down two meters into the soil.

Lespedeza

Lespedeza capitata

round-headed bush-clover [Blooms: Aug-Sep]

Violet bush-clover produces racemes or sparsely branched panicles of 3-8 flowers from the tips of stems or axils of middle or upper leaves; the inflorescences are borne on long peduncles that extend above/beyond the leaves. Individual flowers are 6-10 mm long and pea-like; they include a light green calyx with five teeth that is half the length of the flower; five whitish purple to purple petals (one upright banner with a basal patch of rosy purple; two lower, outer wings shorter than the keel; and two lower, inner petals that make up the keel); 10 stamens; and a pistil with a single style. Both the stamens and style are usually hidden within the keel. Fertilized flowers produce small green, single-seeded seedpods that lack sticky hairs (unlike the much-larger tick-trefoils); at maturity, the seedpods are 4-7 mm long and dark brown.

Lespedeza

Lespedeza frutescens

violet bush-clover [Blooms: Aug-Sep]

Rough blazing star's floral spike grows directly from the stem 6-18" long, with composite flowerheads along its length. Very early buds may appear as white, miniature cabbage-like structures, with purple highlights. Flowerheads open from the apex and proceed in a wave towards the base of the inflorescence. Flowerheads are about 1" across and usually stalkless. They are composed entirely of 25-40 disc florets (no ray florets), each with a tubular pinkish-purple corolla with five sharply-pointed apical lobes; a very long divided style emerges from the center of the corolla and the five brown anthers are inserted side by side around the base of the style. The exterior of the flowerhead is covered with 4-5 overlapping series of green or purple-tinged broadly rounded bracts whose edges are rolled in and rough with series of distinct, tiny teeth. Rocky Mountain blazing star's bracts look very similar to rough blazing star's, but the flowerheads of rough blazing star are essentially sessile (flower stalk no more than 1/4" long) while the flowerheads of Rocky Mountain blazing star have significant stalks, most commonly 1/2-1" long (as long as the flowerhead). The Jackson Park blazing stars bloom in the order cylindrical, prairie, rough, marsh, and Rocky Mountain; in relative abundance, rough is the most common, followed by cylindrical, prairie, marsh, and Rocky Mountain. Quick key to the Jackson Park blazing stars: bracts covering base of the flowerhead are (1) sharply pointed (-> cylindrical), (2) recurved away from flower, flaring (-> prairie), (3) tip round, closely appressed (-> marsh), (4) margins with tiny teeth, rolled under (-> rough if flower stalk is very short, Rocky Mountain if flower stalk about same length as flowerhead).

Liatris

Liatris aspera

rough blazing-star [Blooms: Aug-Sept]

Cylindrical blazing star is a more open plant than the other Jackson Park blazing stars, with the flowerheads relatively widely spaced along the 2-4" long racemes that are perched atop a 1-1.5' tall, unbranched stem. The showy flowerheads are pink or purplish-pink, about 1/2-3/4" in diameter, sessile or held on up to 3/4" stalks, with 15-25 disk flowers and no ray flowers; the base of the flowerheads is covered with 5-7 layers of scale-like, overlapping bracts with a sharp tip that together form a slim cylinder ~3/4" long and 1/3" diameter. The disk florets are tubular with five recurved triangular flaps at their apex; a pinkish white style, surrounded at its base by the five closely-packed yellowish-brown anthers and divided distally into two long filaments. Cylindrical blazing star appears to prefer dryer, well drained soils. The Jackson Park blazing stars bloom in the order cylindrical, prairie, rough, marsh, and Rocky Mountain; in relative abundance, rough is the most common, followed by cylindrical, prairie, marsh, and Rocky Mountain blazing stars. Quick key to the Jackson Park blazing stars: bracts covering base of the flowerhead are (1) sharply pointed (-> cylindrical), (2) recurved away from flower, flaring (-> prairie), (3) tip round, closely appressed (-> marsh), (4) margins with tiny teeth, rolled under (-> rough if flower stalk is very short, Rocky Mountain if flower stalk about same length as flowerhead).

Liatris

Liatris cylindracea

cylindrical blazing-star [Blooms: Jul-Aug]

Rocky Mountain blazing star (aka, northern plains blazing star) is the least common of the blazing stars in Jackson Park. Flowerheads lack ray florets but have 30-100 disc florets. Rocky Mountain blazing star flowerheads most closely resemble those of rough blazing star in that the bracts covering the base of the flowers in both have their edges rolled under with toothed edges, but the bracts in Rocky Mountain blazing star tend to flatten with age. The best way to distinguish the two species is by the length of the flowerhead's stalk —  the flowerheads of rough blazing star are essentially stalkless (stalks 1/4" long max) while those of Rocky Mountain blazing star are typically 1/2-1" long or longer, often the same size or longer than the flowerhead itself. Illinois is on the eastern edge of Rocky Mountain blazing star's range, so it's a fairly rare sight here. Quick key to the Jackson Park blazing stars: bracts covering base of the flowerhead are (1) sharply pointed (-> cylindrical), (2) recurved away from flower, flaring (-> prairie), (3) tip round, closely appressed (-> marsh), (4) margins with tiny teeth, rolled under (-> rough if flower stalk is very short, Rocky Mountain if flower stalk about same length as flowerhead).

Liatris

Liatris ligulistylis

Rocky Mountain blazing-star [Blooms: Aug-Sep]

Prairie blazing star's stem ends in a spike of composite, purple flowerheads 1/4-1/2" across; pinkish-red bracts cover the underside of the flowerheads, tapering to a fine tip that dramatically curls away from the flowerhead (like the scales on a dry pine cone). (No other blazing stars have such recurved bracts.) Each flowerhead has 5-10 disc florets that are tubular, 7-10 mm long, with five lobes at the apex forming a prominent star shape. A hairy, divided style protrudes well beyond the apex of the corolla; the base of the style is surrounded by the 3 mm long, reddish-brown anthers of the five stamens. Prairie blazing stars prefer well-watered areas. The Jackson Park blazing stars bloom in the order cylindrical, prairie, rough, marsh, and Rocky Mountain; in relative abundance, rough is the most common, followed by cylindrical, prairie, marsh, and Rocky Mountain. Quick key to the Jackson Park blazing stars: bracts covering base of the flowerhead are (1) sharply pointed (-> cylindrical), (2) recurved away from flower, flaring (-> prairie), (3) tip round, closely appressed (-> marsh), (4) margins with tiny teeth, rolled under (-> rough if flower stalk is very short, Rocky Mountain if flower stalk about same length as flowerhead).

Liatris

Liatris pycnostachya

prairie blazing-star [Blooms: Jul-Aug]

Savanna blazing-star's inflorescence is a long (up to 24"), narrow raceme of 10-40 flowerheads blooming in order from the tip of the inflorescence downwards. Each flowerhead has a 1/2-3.5" long, ascending stalk (peduncle); flowerheads are usually solitary on the peduncle. A sessile, leafy bract resembling the leaves occurs at the base of each peduncle. The central stalk of the inflorescences and the peduncle are fuzzy with short, white hairs. Each flowerhead is 1-2" across; they have 20-80 disk florets and no ray florets. The disk florets are tubular with five narrow, spreading lobes. The styles are bifurcated and extend well beyond the corolla of the disk florets, giving the flowerheads a shaggy aspect. There are five stamens hidden within the throat of the disk floret; the black anthers are visible, appressed to the body of the style. Surrounding the base of the flowerhead are scale-like bracts (phyllaries) in 4-6 overlapping series; they are slightly spreading and angled upwards but are neither appressed nor recurved. Individual phyllaries are oval or egg-shaped with short hairs protruding from their margins; they are often dark purple when the flowerhead is blooming. The fruit is a cylindrical, black seed with a tuft of white hairs about twice as long as the seed on one end. Preferred habitats are sandy savannas. Skippers and monarch butterflies seem particularly fond of savanna blazing-star. Savanna blazing-star might be confused with the much more common rough blazing star (Liatris aspera), but the latter always has appressed phyllaries with toothed, incurved edges, in contrast to savanna blazing-star's spreading, flat phyllaries and a much shorter stalk beneath the flowerhead than is present in savanna blazing-star. NatureServe Explorer (https://explorer.natureserve.org) rejects the name "Liatris scariosa" in favor of "Liatris novae-angliae" but ITIS (www.itis.gov)rejects the latter, as does the USDA Plants website(https://plants.usda.gov/). Here we will follow the latter two sources.

Liatris

Liatris scariosa

savanna blazing-star [Blooms: Aug]

Marsh blazing star flower spikes are 4-18" long extensions of the main stem, crowded with pinkish-purple flowerheads facing in all directions. Individual flowerheads are about 8 mm across; ray florets are absent and the 4-10 disc florets dominate. The corolla of a disc floret is tubular with five lance-shaped apical lobes; the divided style extends well outside the tubular corolla, surrounded at its base by five tightly packed stamens. The base of the flowerhead is covered with overlapping, flattened, elongate-oval bracts with rounded tips. Marsh blazing star is similar to prairie blazing star in appearance, but the bracts of prairie blazing star are highly recurved (like the scales on a dry pine cone). Quick key to the Jackson Park blazing stars: bracts covering base of the flowerhead are (1) sharply pointed (-> cylindrical), (2) recurved away from flower, flaring (-> prairie), (3) tip round, closely appressed (-> marsh), (4) margins with tiny teeth, rolled under (-> rough if flower stalk is very short, Rocky Mountain if flower stalk about same length as flowerhead).

Liatris

Liatris spicata

marsh blazing-star [Blooms: Aug]

Hairy puccoon flowers are 3/4" across with a VERY hairy, green calyx with five sharply-triangular teeth , a yellow to yellow-orange tubular corolla with five widely-spreading rounded lobes, five stamens hidden inside the corolla beneath the throat, and a single style with a two-lobed, disc-like stigma. The flowers of hairy puccoon are heterostylous; i.e., either they have long stamens (~14 mm) and a short style (2-5 mm) or short stamens (~3 mm) with a long style (5-12 mm), but neither the anthers nor the stigma extend beyond the throat of the corolla (although they may get close). Hairy puccoon is very similar to hoary puccoon (L. canescens) but with stems that are less hairy and the hairs are "disorganized." The calyx at the base of the floral tube are very hairy in both species, but the teeth of the calyx in L. caroliniense have a distinct keel running down their midline. (I.e., subspecies L. caroliniense croceum.) Flowers of hairy puccoon are larger — up to 1" vs. 1/2" in hoary puccoon. The fruit is an egg-shaped nutlet, white when mature.

Lithospermum

Lithospermum caroliniense

hairy puccoon [Blooms: May-Jun]

Cardinal flower is an unmistakable bright red (rarely white), orchid-like flower that prefers wet habitats. A mature plant is 2-3.5' tall; the stem is light green, round in section, and hairy. The stem terminates in a 1/2-1.5' long raceme of bright red flowers. At the base of the flower is a green calyx with five very long, narrow, usually-spreading lobes. The corolla is 1-1.5" long and 3/4-1" across; it is strikingly vertically-oriented. Rising above the two lateral corolla lobes and a third, three-lobed, central lip is a tubular structure that contains the fused filaments of the five stamens; the anther tubules are brush-like grayish structures at the downturned tip. The stigma runs up the center of this tube; it remain hidden for a time behind a pair of lips for a time, then the style elongates and emerges from the tip of the tube as a two-lobed stigma. The reproductive structures are precisely positioned to touch (and transfer pollen with) the head of a hummingbird drinking nectar from the flower. The fruit is a small, hemispherical, 1/4-1/2" capsule hidden in the remnants of the calyx. Nothing else in Illinois looks even vaguely like cardinal flowers.

Lobelia

Lobelia cardinalis

cardinal flower [Blooms: Jul-Sep]

Great blue lobelia's flower spike is 0.5-2' long, densely covered by blue-violet flowers with white stripes. individual flowers are about 1" across, the apex angled upwards, with a green, very hairy calyx with five long, narrow teeth and the bell-shaped corolla a tube that splits distally into in an upper and a lower lip, each with long white hairs on their outer surfaces. The lower lip consists of three lance-shaped, descending lobes with white patches near their bases; the upper lip has two lobes that flank on either side a cylindrical structure (five bluish stamen filaments fused with and surrounding the style) with a down-turned tip (the stigma) surrounded by brush-like anther "beards". The flower stalk and calyx are green and densely hairy. Like most lobelias, great blue lobelia contains toxic alkaloids that can produce serious symptoms; keep pets away. This species is unlikely to be confused with any other. If mystified by the flower structure, see http://iowaplants.com/flora/family/Campanulaceae/lobelia/l_siphilitica/Lobelia_siphilitica.html.

Lobelia

Lobelia siphilitica

great blue lobelia [Blooms: Aug-Oct]

Amur honeysuckle flowers occur in near-sessile pairs arising from leaf axils; there is a 2 mm long flower stalk (the thickness of a U.S. five cent coin). The corolla is about 1" long and tall, white or cream-colored, consisting of four fused, vertical upper lobes and a single lower lobe at 90° to the upper lobes; this geometry creates an opening through which protrudes five long stamens with yellow anthers and the solitary pistil with a green, knobby stigma. Outer surfaces of the flower are hairy. The fruit is a 1/4" diameter, shiny-red, spherical berry, usually in clusters of 2-4, that looks rather like a large current. The berries are mildly poisonous. The berries of amur honeysuckle are very similar in appearance and distribution to the berries of Morrow's honeysuckle (Lonicera morrowii), but the berries of the former are sessile while the berries of the latter are attached to 1/2" long pedicels. In addition, the leaves of amur honeysuckle have elongated tips while the leaf tips of Morrow's honeysuckle are relatively blunt; only amur honeysuckle has sessile flowers. Please don't plant this in your garden — too often, it escapes.

Lonicera

Lonicera maackii

amur honeysuckle [Blooms: Apr-Jun]

Morrow's honeysuckle is another invasive exotic, this one from northern Asia, a highly branched shrub 6-10' high that prefers disturbed woodlands and a strong competitor for space. Flowers arise in pairs from leaf axils on pedicels at least 1/2" long. Each flower consists of a tubular greyish-green calyx with five teeth covered with short hairs; a tubular corolla 3/4-1" long and across, initially white but becoming cream colored over time, with five long, narrow, widely-spreading lobes (four on the upper lip, one on the lower lip); five stamens with white filaments and yellow anthers; and a single, slender white style with a dome-shaped, green stigma. The fruit is a red berry 1/4" across. The berries of Morrow's honeysuckle are very similar in appearance and distribution to the berries of amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii), but the former are attached to 1/2" long or longer pedicels while the latter are sessile; in addition, the leaves of amur honeysuckle have elongated "drip tips" while the leaf tips of Morrow's honeysuckle are relatively blunt.

Lonicera

Lonicera morrowii

Morrow's honeysuckle [Blooms: Apr-May]

In grape honeysuckle, a short flowering stalk emerges from the tip of the stem where it emerges from the terminal pair of leaves; 2-5 whorls of flowers develop along this flowering stalk. Each flower is about 1" long. It consists of an egg-shaped, swollen, dark green ovary; a pale yellow to orange-yellow, two-lipped corolla that fades with age to orange or red; five stamens with yellow anthers; and a single style with a dome-shaped stigma. There are no hairs on the flowers. Both the stamens and the style protrude from the corolla. The ovary of fertilized flowers produces berries which are initially green but, at maturity, become globoid, orange-red to red, and about 1/4-1/2" long. Grape honeysuckle is the only honeysuckle (native or exotic) in Jackson Park that is a woody vine; it is distinctive and should be easy to recognize.

Lonicera

Lonicera reticulata

grape honeysuckle [Blooms: Jun]