White flowers
White-blooming wildflowers offer delicate contrast to the bold prairie palette. Here, you’ll find asters, goldenrod, and other species with pale blooms that often serve as important pollinator plants. This section helps you recognize these species by bloom shape, leaf patterns, and habitat.
Heath Aster (Symphyotrichum ericoides)
Plant height 1 to 3 feet
Bloom season August to October
Habitat Part shade, sun; dry to moist, sandy, or rocky soil; wet to dry prairie, savanna, dunes, roadsides, railroads, woodland edges, outcrops
Flowers
- > 7 white petals; yellow disk
- ½ to ¾ inch diameter
- Few to many flowers, tightly packed into cylindrical flower clusters
Leaves
- Alternate, and basal; simple; entire
- Mostly linear (may be needle-like); smaller leaves often clustered in between larger leaves; leaves near flowers are short and crowded; basal leaves are more spatulate and wither away by flowering time
- 1 inch long, less than ¼ inch wide;
- Hairless to sparsely haired; stalkless
Stems
- Green, turn brown and woody with age
- Single to multiple from base
- Unbranched in lower plant, heavily branched in upper plant
- Hairy, especially flower stalks and in upper part of plant
Long-headed Thimbleweed (Anemone cylindrica)
Plant height 8 to 20 inches
Bloom season July to August
Habitat Part shade, sun; dry; prairies, roadsides, forest edges
Flowers
- 5 greenish white sepals surrounding a large, cone-like center; sepals hairy; ¾ inch across
- 2 to 8 terminal, long-stalked flowers arising from a whorl of leaves
Leaves
- Basal and whorled; palmately compound, each leaflet has 3 to 5 deep lobes, lobes have 2 to 5 large teeth
- One whorl of 3 to 10 leaves about midway up the stem, all leaves of similar shape and in groups of 3
- Leaflets up to 4 inches long
- Hairy throughout
Stems
- Often in clusters; erect
- Hairy throughout
Northern Bedstraw (Galium boreale)
Plant height 8 to 20 inches
Bloom season June to August
Habitat Part shade, sun; moist to dry open woods, edges of forest, fields, prairies
Flowers
- 4 white petals with a pointed tip
- Flowers 1⁄₈ to ¼ inch wide
- Many-flowered, loose to dense branching terminal clusters
Leaves
- In whorls of 4; simple; entire
- ¾ to 2 inches long, ¼ inch wide
- 3 parallel veins
Stems
- Green
- Usually single
- Branching in upper part of plant
- Hairless, slender, square
Panicled Aster (Symphyotrichum lanceolatum)
Plant height 1 to 5 feet
Bloom season August to October
Habitat Part shade, sun; average to moist soil; shores, woodland edges, meadows, fens, ditches
Flowers
- > 7 petals per flower of variable colour (often pale blue or pink); yellow disk, turns reddish with age
- ½ to ¾ inch diameter
- Branching flower stalks occur towards top of stem; typically, more than 20 flowers per branch and 100 flowers per plant
Leaves
- Alternate and stalkless; simple; entire or with a few widely spaced teeth
- Lance-linear, pointed at tip
- 1 to 4 inches long, ¾ inch wide
- Smooth
Stems
- Green, may be reddish along linear shallow grooves
- Grow from rhizomes and forms colonies
- Smooth, may have lines of short hairs in upper stem and flowering branches
Prairie Dogbane (Apocynum cannabinum)
Plant height 1 to 3 feet
Bloom season July to August
Habitat Part shade to sun; wet prairie ditches, along roads, moist deciduous woods
Flowers
- Greenish white bell-shaped flowers in terminal clusters
- ≤ ¼ inch or smaller
Leaves
- Opposite; simple; entire
- Green with white to cream-coloured veins; oval shaped with pointed tip, rounded or narrowed base. Turns bright yellow in late summer/early fall.
- ≤ 4 inches long, 2 ½ inches wide
- Ascending; short leaf stalk, lower leaves may be stalkless
- May feel waxy, milky sap
Stems
- Red at maturity
- Typically hairless, may feel waxy
- Releases milky sap when broken
Rough Bugleweed (Lycopus asper)
Plant height 6 to 24 inches
Bloom season July to September
Habitat Part shade, sun; moist soil; wet meadows, ditches, marsh edges
Similar species Wild Mint (p. 84), which has light pink to lavender flowers and a strong mint smell. Leaves of Rough Bugleweed slightly angle upwards, whereas Wild Mint leaves do not.
Flowers
- Whorled clusters of tiny white flowers around leaf axils
- 4 fused petals, may be speckled pink inside
- 1⁄₈ to 1⁄₆ inch across; irregular, tubular
Leaves
- Opposite; simple; roughly toothed, angled upward
- Lance-oblong, 1 to 3 inches long, up to 1 inch wide
- Short-stalked leaf pairs arranged at 90-degree angles to those above and below
- Variously hairy
- Distinct, but not strong, resinous-lemony scent when crushed
Stems
- Square stems; variously hairy, can become smooth with age
Spotted Water Hemlock (Cicuta maculata)
Plant height 3 to 6 feet
Bloom season July to September
Habitat Part shade, sun; wet fields, moist thickets, wet ditches, fens,
swamps, shores
Similar species Water Parsnip (Sium suave), which has once-divided leaves and
veins that end in tooth tips.
Flowers
- Terminal dome-shaped compound umbels, ≤ 6 inches diameter
- 5 white petals, notched at the tip; flowers with greenish white center
- 1⁄₈ inch diameter
- One to several umbels/plant; each umbel has > 10 umbellets with 12 to 15 flowers
Leaves
- Alternate; pinnately compound, divided twice; ≥ three leaflets per leaf; jagged teeth
- Leaflets 2-4 inches long, 1 ¼ inches wide
- Leaflets are lance-linear, often fold upwards from central vein
- Lateral veins of leaflets end in the notch of the teeth instead of the tip of the tooth
Stems
- Green or purple, may have purple streaks or spots
- Many branches
- Hairless
Tall Cinquefoil (Drymocallis arguta)
Plant height 1 to 3 feet
Bloom season June to August
Habitat Part shade, sun; average to dry prairies, forest edges; rocky to sandy soil
Flowers
- 5 well-spaced, creamy white petals with rounded tips; 5 pointed green sepals appear between them; center is deep yellow
- ½ to ¾ inch diameter
- Clustered at top
- Typically, only a few flowers bloom at a given time
Leaves
- Basal and alternate; pinnately compound; often double toothed (each tooth countains 2 shallower teeth)
- Green; 7-11 leaflets on basal leaves, 3-5 on stem leaves
- Basal leaves 4-8 inches long, lower leaflets smaller than upper ones
- Densely haired, soft stems
Stems
- Grey-green
- Usually single from base
- Erect, usually unbranched except for flower clusters
- Slightly sticky, densely haired
Tall Meadow Rue (Thalictrum dasycarpum)
Plant height 2 to 5 feet
Bloom season July
Habitat type Part shade, sun; moist soil; forest edges, thickets, meadows, fens, wet ditches, shores
Flowers
- 4 to 6 greenish-white sepals, petals are absent; 1⁄₃ inch long
- Male and female flowers are on separate plants; female flowers have 10 white pistils that look like petals; male flowers have 12 greenish hanging stamens with pale yellow anthers
- Flowers are in loose branching clusters
Leaves
- Alternate and basal; compound, divided 3 to 5 times; leaflets longer than wide with 2 or 3 pointed lobes
- Blue green
- Leaflets approximately 1 inch long; terminal leaflet has longest stalk; lower leaves have longer stalks, upper leaves have very short stalks
- Hairy on underside
Stems
- Purplish
- Single
- Upper stalk branched
- Mostly hairless
Upland White Goldenrod (Solidago ptarmicoides)
Plant height 1 to 2 feet
Bloom season July to September
Habitat Part shade, sun; average to dry sandy or rocky soil; prairies, open woods, bluffs, rocky outcrops
Flowers
- 10 to 20 white petals; pale-yellow to cream disk
- ½ inch diameter
- 3 to 60 flowers on 1 inch stalks; open, flat flower clusters at top of plant
Leaves
- Alternate; simple; entire, may have few noticeable teeth towards the tip
- Lance-linear, lower leaves are stalked and may be more lance-oval
- Up to 7 ½ inches long, upper leaves get progressively smaller and stalkless, becoming scale-like within flower clusters
- Smooth to rough textured
Stems
- Erect and rigid, mostly unbranched except within flower clusters
- Upper stem typically rough textured, lower stem may be smooth
White Camas (Zigadenus elegans)
Plant height 6 to 36 inches
Bloom season June to July
Habitat Sun; rich medium to moist prairies and meadows
Flowers
- 6 cream to greenish white tepals, each with a green heart-shaped nectar gland at the base; pistils split in 3; 6 arching stamens with yellow anthers
- ½ inch diameter
Leaves
- Mostly basal; grass-like
- Whitish green from waxy coating; folded lengthwise and keeled
- 4 to 12 inches long, ¼ to ½ inch wide; stem leaves shorter; clasping to almost clasping the stem
- Smooth, waxy; parallel veins
Stems
- Whitish green from waxy coating
- Single and erect
- Unbranched except in the inflorescence
- Smooth
