Native Plants

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Tuesday - December 10, 2013

From: O'Fallon, MO
Region: Midwest
Topic: Wildflowers
Title: Earliest spring wildflowers from O'Fallon Mo.
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

Which spring wildflower blooms first around the St. Louis area?

ANSWER:

We cannot define the "first" wildflower to bloom in Saint Charles County at the east central border of Missouri, but we can find some that bloom early and list them for you. The reasons we can be no more exact than that are:

(1) Wildflowers bloom when and where they jolly well please. Every year we get questions from readers who have bluebonnets (traditionally blooming from mid-February to late April) blooming in their yards in August. Do we know why? Nope.

(2) There are some native wildflowers, almost all perennials, that can bloom year round, depending on weather conditions. Which is earlier in the Spring - a flower that started blooming in December and is still blooming in March or one that started in February and ended in May? Don't know the answer to that one either.

So, Mr. Smarty Plants is going to ignore those possibilities and search in our Native Plant Database for herbs and forbs (herbaceous blooming flowers), Missouri and January for bloom time. Here is how to do that: Go to our Native Plant Database, scroll down that page to Combination Search. Using that, select on Missouri for the state, herbs for Habit and January for Bloom Time. Click on the "Submit Combination Search" box and you will get a list of flowers that fit your criteria.

Using that search criteria, we got 15 results; however, 3 of those did not show up on the USDA Plant Profle Map as growing in the St. Louis area. Also of that number, 5 showed that they can bloom from January to December. You can always repeat the search, using other months as the first month of Spring.

Allium stellatum (Autumn onion) - blooms January to December

Claytonia virginica (Virginia springbeauty) - blooms January to May

Corallorhiza wisteriana (Spring coralroot) - blooms January to July

Eclipta prostrata (False daisy) - blooms January to December

Eclipta prostrata (False daisy) - bloom January to December

Equisetum hyemale (Canuela)- blooms January to December

Erigenia bulbosa (Harbinger of spring) - blooms January to May

Froelichia gracilis (Slender snakecotton) - blooms Janury to December

Phytolacca americana var. americana (American pokeweed) - blooms January to December

Taraxacum officinale (Common dandelion) - blooms January to December