The flowers of the spider wort are pale pink, blue to purple (occasionally white). This color variation may result from the acidity or alkalinity of the soil and from genetic differences in the plants. The short-lived flowers usually close during the heat of the day and reopen before morning. 3-petaled, borne in loose clusters at base of a pair of leaves at stem tip; flowers are 1-1½ inches wide. Flowers bloom from April-July. The leaves are long, narrow, grasslike and curved downward, with a large sheath at base.

It is a perennial, growing erect, from 8-36 inches tall and transplants to gardens very successfully. Numerous fleshly roots, concentrated at the plant base, have a rubbery appearance. When stems are broken, a mucilaginous, stringy substance appears, resembling that excreted by a spider, hence then name.

The spider wort's habitat includes prairies, open woods, thickets, railroad embankments, and meadows.

Spiderworts are among the world's most sensitive-and certainly the most attractive-devices for detecting nuclear radiation. The stamen hairs on a plant that has been exposed to low-level radiation change from blue to pink in proportion to the dose received. By counting, under a microscope, the number of cells in a hair that have so changed, a scientist can index the severity of radiation. Prairie Indians used the succulent stems as potherbs. The simple geometry and elegant coloring of the blossoms likely were responsible for inspiring the Indians to salute spiderwort in song.

PRAIRIE ROSE
Rosa setigera

The flowers of the wild prairie rose are pink but may fade to white, or petals may be streaked with darker pink. They are usually 1¼ to 2½ inches in diameter and are in a cluster of two to three blooms. Flowers appear June-August. The wild rose is the state flower of North Dakota and Iowa.

The fruit is a hip, almost globular and about ½ inch diameter. It is bright red when ripe and contains many seeds and becomes valuable winter food for wildlife. Its leaves are medium green, pinnately compound, with nine to eleven leaflets which are smooth and shiny.

The rose is a perennial, growing erect, 6 inches to 4 feet high, and dies off to the ground each fall.

Its habitat includes open prairie, uncultivated fields, road edges, and woodland thickets. The plant is most common on the grasslands.

The dotted blazingstar's flowers are deep rosy purple, up to ½ inch diameter, about ¾ inch long, with the heads arranged in a dense crowed spike of disc florets. Each head contains four to eight tubular florets, none of the ray type, with plumose pappus hairs among them. Flowers appear in August to September.

The fruit is seed-like, narrow, hairy, with many small plumes at top. It's leaves are bright green with a whitish midvein, stiff and linear, minutely dotted, 2 to 6 inches long, usually nearer the former. Lower leaves are wider and almost lance-shaped.
The dotted blazingstar is a perennial growing in a clump of stems which may be somewhat decumbent, but up to 18 inches tall. The stems arise from a lemon-sized underground corm, a solid bulb-like root. Plains Indians ate the corms, but only as a survival food, for these perennial roots are coarse and fibrous, and not very nutritious. It's habitat includes dry open places, often in sandy soil.

The flowers of the evening-primrose are white, about 1½-3 inches across. They usually open in the morning and fade into a light pink by evening with 4 heart-shaped petals. They have a strong, rather unpleasant, heavy scent. The flowers develop in the axils of the upper leaves, and appear from May-July.

The fruit is a slender, somewhat curved capsule, ¾ to 1¼ inches long. The leaves are alternate, pale green, linear, 1 to 4 inches long, with wavy margins and without teeth. Lower leaves roughly spoon-shaped, upper ones deeply cut.

The prairie evening-primrose is a perennial and is much branched, growing to 15 to 40 inches tall. The stems are white and shiny and have bark that sheds easily. Plants grow from a white, fleshy rootstock. It's habitat includes road edges and margins of fields, particularly in sandy soils.

The flowers of the yellow evening-primrose are bright lemon yellow, 1 to 2 inches in diameter, with four reflexed sepals and four petals. Flowers are arranged in a spike-like fashion on stems which may grow up to 5 feet tall. All flowers do not bloom at once and they usually open in the evening. Flowers appear July-August

the fruit is a dry, coarse, slightly hairy, stalkless capsule about 2 inches long, with many small seeds. There may be over 50 oval fruits clustered along the upper 18 inches of the stem. These pods release their many seeds over a considerable period of time. It's leaves are alternate, lance-shaped to oval, deep green, 1 to 5 inches long. Those on the lower stem have short stalks but they are stalkless on the upper stem.

The yellow evening-primrose is bushy and branched growing from a deep tap-root. There are several varieties of this species. It grows mainly on field edges and waste places. It grows in most of temperate North America and Canada.

The flowers of the many-flowered asters have white ray florets and yellow disc florets. The flower heads are relatively small, 3/8 inch in diameter but very numerous. They are mostly found on one side of the curved stems, where 4 to 7 inches of the end of each stem may bear flowers. Bracts are arranged in three series around the heads. Flowers appear August-September.

The fruit is an achene with distinct ridges and a pappus with hairs of variable length. The leaves are alternate, gray green, narrow, linear, ½ to ¾ inch long with smooth margins. They are quite numerous.
It grows as a cluster of several wiry hairy stems arising from a thick tufted rootstock to a height of 8 to 24 inches in grassy edges of fields, open meadows and edges of scrubby patches.

The flowers are lavender pink to white, ½ inch long, 1/16 inch in diameter, in a nearly globose terminal raceme. The white stamens usually protrude from each flower. Approximate date of flowering is August.

The fruit is a long pod. These pods are evident on the lower parts of the raceme while the upper portion is still in flower. Their leaves are dark green, numerous, alternate, lance-shaped, 1 to 3 inches long. Upper leaves are virtually stalkless. They are not toothed.

It is an annual and grows erect. Some plants are branched but others have a solitary stem. It grows to a height of 1to 5 feet tall in waste places, roadsides and semi-cultivated areas of the prairies.

The young, tender shoots and leaves of the pink bee-plant were eaten by western Indians. They also boiled the stems until a black residue remained. They used this as a paint or dye, or dried it to use later as food. These tall plants of the plains have two sets of names describing very different qualities. The flower clusters, with their leggy-looking stamens and protruding pistils and seedpods, evoke the name spiderflowers; the rich nectar within earns the name bee plants. (The odor of the crushed leaves, however, inspires additional epithets like stinkweed, skunkweed, and stinking clover.)

FIELD CHICKWEED
Cerastium arvense

The flowers of the field chickweed are white, 3/8 to 5/8 inch across, with five deeply cleft petals and five sepals. Sepals are much shorter than petals in this species, but about the same length as the petals in another common species, mouse-eared chickweed, (vulgatum). Flowers bloom in May.

The fruit is a capsule about ½ inch long which contains several reddish brown seeds. Their Leaves are opposite, linear to lance-shaped, 3/8 to 1½ inch long, usually hairy and consequently gray green in color. Leaves of the mouse-eared chickweed are slightly shorter and more hairy. They are a perennial and growth is tufted, (but mouse-eared chickweed may appear as one to four distinctly separate stems). The stems are usually semi-prostrate, 6 to 10 inches long, covered with short hairs which point downward toward the base of the plant. It will be found on the open prairie throughout the western and central part of the area. Field chickweed and mouse-eared chickweed differ little and often grow in the same locality.

These delicate-looking edible weeds are bespangled from early spring to late fall with white, five-petaled flowers. Each set is so deeply cleft, however, that there seem to be 10 of them. The weak, reclining stems and tender leaves may be added raw to salads, but they taste best when boiled briefly in salted water and served in place of spinach. Because chickweeds stay green beneath the snow, they can be important for winter survival-both for animals and humans.

The flowers of the pasque flower (crocus) are pale blue or mauve, occasionally white or light yellow, up to 1½ inches in diameter when open, borne on stems about 4 inches high. The sepals, five to seven, are colored and petals are absent. Pasqueflowers coming from the Latin word Pasque, meaning Easter, generally bloom from mid-April to mid-may. On occasion they will even stubbornly poke their heads through the snow. These small flowers go by many different names around the country. A few of the more common are Prairie Smoke, prairie Anemone, Lion's Beard, and the Wild Crocus. It is a member of the Buttercup family.

The fruit is a large group of feathery achenes on a lengthened flower stalk. The Leaves are gray green, basal, stalked, and much divided, and appear after the flowers fade. It is a perennial and leaves arise from a thick, woody taproot. Plants persist into September and grows on sandy hillsides and high meadows of the open prairie.

The plants contain a volatile oil that is a powerful irritant. Along with their acridity and covering of fine hairs they make very poor forage. Domestic sheep have been known to die from overfeeding on it. The Native Americans were able to utilize the crushed leaves of the Pasqueflower to treat rheumatism, and they also used its flowers to treat nosebleeds. Though the Pasqueflower is no longer used for medicinal purposes, it has been named the state flower of South Dakota and is found on the Manitoba provincial emblem to honor its delicate beauty.

The flowers of the narrow-leaved puccoon are bright lemon yellow, with a tube nearly an inch long. The face of the flower is ¼ inch in diameter. The petals have a fringed or crinkled margin and are almost hidden by leaf-like bracts. Flowers are in a terminal cluster of three to four blooms, and appear from April to June.

The Fruit is four small white nutlets enclosed in the hairy sepals. It’s leaves are gray green, alternate, hairy, lance-shaped and ½ to 2 inches long. It grows as a perennial, semi-erect or decumbent, with slight branching. Plants grow from a woody taproot to about 4 to 20 inches tall on the prairies, also fields and open woods where moisture conditions are reasonably good.

Plains Indians used the woody taproot for food and medicine. There is also a purple juice in the roots. Other gromwell species that give red or yellow dyes are also known a pucoons-an Indian word for any herbal source of dye or paint. the name gromwell is from the Old French gromeil, which referred to the hard white nutlets. Because of these stone-like fruits, the plants were prescribed by many herbalists as a cure for kidney stones.

The flowers are bright yellow, ¼ inch wide, with 4 petals each in dense clusters, with a spicy fragrance. Blooms from April-August.

The fruit is a long, slender, conspicuous seed pod forming from each flower. Numerous pods radiate around the upper stem, presenting a unique appearance.
It's leaves are strap-like, occasionally toothed. It is a native, biennial, growing erect, 4 to 14 inches tall, unbranched to few branched stem. This flowers habitat includes prairies, bluffs and dry places.

Wallflowers (Erysimum) are tough, colorful plants that share the name wallflower with their close cousins Cheiranthus, and plants of both groups are listed interchangeably in many garden catalogs. Both are sun-lovers, known for pushing their way between the rocks of old drywalls and for brightening the bases of rocky cliffs throughout the Northern Hemisphere. It is seldom a nuisance. The main interest in wallflowers is likely centered around its attractiveness as a prairie flower.

The flowers are yellowish white, somewhat tubular with five petals and five sepals. They are born on short stalks in dense racemes, 1 to 2 inches long and appear in July.
The fruit is an oblong brown bur-like pod about inch long, densely covered with hooked prickles. The dry stems and pods often persist until the next season. Its leaves are opposite, pale green, compound pinnate with eleven to nineteen glandular-dotted leaflets which are about 1 inch long. It is a perennial, growing somewhat coarse and starkly erect due to sparse leaves and short branches. Its habitat includes the rough edges of wooded tracts and road and railway grades on wet to moderately dry sandy soils.

The rhizomes, or rootlike underground stems, of this flower yield the popular flavoring for candy and medicines. ("Licorice" is a corruption of the Latin name Glycyrrhiza, which means "sweet root.") An Old World species, Glycyrrhiza Glabra, is the commercial source, but the rhizomes of the Wild Licorice were dried and chewed by Indians

The flowers of the blue-eyed grass are normally blue, ½ to 1½ inches wide; 6 petal-like segments, each with a fine point on the otherwise blunt or notched tip. The "blue-eyes" refer to the flowers which seem to be unnaturally attached to the stems near the tips. Blossoming occurs from June through August.

The leaves are long, slender, 2 to 10 inches long, 1/8 to ¼ inch wide, grasslike in appearance. It is a native perennial forb having fibrous roots and growing 4 to 20 inches tall. The slender foliage of the forb has a grass-like appearance with stems taller than the clusters of leaves. It will be found in fairly wet grasslands including plains, prairies, and mountain meadows.

The blue-eyed grass is one of the most perplexing groups of plants, with many, often intergrading, variants named as species.

SCARLET MALLOW
Malvastrum coccineum

The flowers of the scarlet mallow are orange red with five petals, five sepals and numerous stamens. The short, dense, leafy spikes have four to six flowers. Flowers appear from May through July.

The fruit is formed of the carpels and develops in ten or more papery segments, each of which contains a single seed. It’s leaves are alternate and gray green due to a covering of soft white hairs. They are divided into three to five divisions which are each lobed or forked. Each division is ½ to ¾ inches wide. It is a perennial, growing erect or semi-erect from a thick, scaly rootstock. Plants are 6 to 8 inches high, forming a mat of stems with several flowers on each. It is found mostly on roadsides, railway grades and other disturbed places. On the open prairie, plants are smaller and more separated. The other mallows, have been introduced, so this is the only native member of the family.

The flowers of the blanket-flower are yellow rayflowers and notched at their ends, but reddish to lavender near their bases. The disk, or center of the flower head, is purple early, becoming densely hairy towards maturity. Flowerheads last for a long while. The tubular disk flowers open one at a time, beginning at the outer edge of the disk and proceeding in a spiral, and the petal-like ray flowers remain showy throughout the process. Flowers from June to July.

The Leaves are usually toothed or lobed, with rough, long hairs, from which the name aristata is derived. It is a perennial growing from a deep taproot, erect with a hairy stems. Simple to several-branched stems grow to 1½ feet tall, topped by a single flower head. It never is very abundant but is found on the dry plains, sandy fields and prairies.

PURPLE CONEFLOWER
Echinacea angustifolia

The flowers of the purple coneflower are a flowerhead, 1 to 4 inches wide, with bristly conical center of brown-purple disk flowers surrounded by drooping magenta to pale purple ray flowers, blooming during July and August. After petals fall, the black central cone of the flower remains conspicuous.

The fruit is a grayish black, flattened achene with the pappus reduced to a few scales and one or two small teeth on 2 to 5 stems extended 6 to 10 inches above the leaves. The leaves are lance-shaped, clustered at base and scattered along a hairy reddish stem. It is a perennial, growing erect, stems are 4 to 40 inches tall from a large taproot. It’s habitat includes dry prairies, roadsides, fields and has a preference for rocky side hills and weakly developed soils.

Botanist once classified all the coneflowers in one group. The purple coneflowers were reclassified, not because of their distinctive color but because of such structural differences as the spiny bristles among their disk flowers. Where it is abundant it is an indicator of good range condition. Indians used the roots for a variety of purposes. They chewed pieces of rootstalk to relieve toothache pain. Juices from the plant were used to treat burns, mumps, and for distemper treatment in horses. Modern medicine still uses extracts from the roots of this plant for healing wounds and curing sore throat.

The flowers of the low everlasting are white to cream color, occasionally slightly pink, in heads ¼ to ½ inch tall. Ray florets are absent; disc florets are creamy white and have either stamens or pistil, (sometimes both sexes are on the same plant). Bracts are thin, white, or translucent and overlap the flower heads. Several flower heads are present in each compact cluster which is so shaped that the flower is often called "pussy toes." Flowering is from June to July.

The fruit is a dry achene with a white pappus. It’s leaves are woolly white on both sides and form a close mat on the ground. Individual leaves are spatulate or wedge-shaped, 3/8 to 3/4 inch long. Stem leaves, if present, are 3/8 inch long and linear. It’s growth is basal, and even the flower stems, plants are rarely over 6 inches tall. It’s habitat includes dry prairie or dry meadows.

The tubular disk flowers that make up the pussytoes' fluffy flowerheads can produce seed with or without fertilization (the latter case is called apomixis). Thus, individual variations that arise from cross-pollination are later preserved in clonelike offspring. The result is a confusing array of species and varieties.

WINGED DOCK
Tumex venosus

The flowers of the winged dock are reddish-orange color in thick clusters, at first inconspicuous, with 6 sepal-like segments, the inner 3 greatly enlarged to broadly heart-shaped bracts, each about ½ to 1½ inches long, which surround a tiny fruit. The reddish-orange flower clusters are conspicuous in the late spring; later the broad sepals catch the wind and tumble the seed to new places. Flowers from April through June.

The leaves are up to 6 inches long, numerous, ovate or lanceolate. It is a perennial, growing stout, erect, leafy, reddish stems with conspicuous white sheaths where leaves join. Height is about 6 to 20 inches. It’s habitat includes open banks, ravines, grassland, road ditches, sagebrush desert, often where the soil is sandy.

Tannin extracted from the roots was used by early Spanish settlers to tan hides. Roots were also used medicinally. An English name for many of the more weedy Rumex species is Sour Dock. The sour flavor comes from oxalic acid.