The Ochethi Sakowin, the Seven Council Fires (or "Great Sioux Nation") identified the native species of flowers and plants of the Great Plains. The only difference between this guide and another guide about flowers and plants is that this one includes the flower or plant in the language of the ...more ↓
Polygala alba, commonly called white milkwort, is a species of flowering plant in the milkwort family (Polygalaceae). It is native to North America, where it is found in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.. In the United States, its range is concentrated in the Great Plains and the Southwest. Its natural habitat is in rocky or sandy dry prairies.
Fragaria vesca, commonly called wild strawberry, woodland strawberry, Alpine strawberry, Carpathian Strawberry, European strawberry, or fraisier des bois, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the rose family that grows naturally throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere, and that produces edible fruits.
Argentina anserina is a synonym of Potentilla anserina L., the accepted name of a perennial flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae. It is known by the common names "silverweed", common silverweed or silverweed cinquefoil. It is native throughout the temperate Northern Hemisphere, often on river shores and in grassy habitats such as meadows and ...more ↓
Dasiphora fruticosa (syn. Potentilla fruticosa L., Pentaphylloides fruticosa (L.) O.Schwarz) is a disputed name. It is a species of hardy deciduous flowering shrub in the genus Dasiphora (formerly Potentilla) of the family Rosaceae, native to the cool temperate and subarctic regions of the northern hemisphere, often growing at high altitudes in ...more ↓
Prunus americana, commonly called the American plum, wild plum, or Marshall's large yellow sweet plum, is a species of Prunus native to North America from Saskatchewan and Idaho south to New Mexico and east to Québec, Maine and Florida.
Prunus pumila, commonly called sand cherry, is a North American species of cherry in the rose family. It is widespread in eastern and central Canada from New Brunswick west to Saskatchewan and the northern United States from Maine to Montana, south as far as Colorado, Kansas, Indiana, and Virginia, with a few isolated populations in Tennessee and Utah. It grows in sandy ...more ↓
Prunus virginiana, commonly called bitter-berry, chokecherry, Virginia bird cherry and western chokecherry (also black chokecherry for P. virginiana var. demissa), is a species of bird cherry (Prunus subgenus Padus) native to North America; the natural historic range of P. virginiana includes most of Canada ...more ↓
Rubus occidentalis is a species of Rubus native to eastern North America. Its common name black raspberry is shared with the closely related western American species Rubus leucodermis. Other names occasionally used include wild black raspberry, black caps, black cap raspberry, thimbleberry, and scotch cap.
Rosa arkansana, the prairie rose or wild prairie rose, is a species of rose native to a large area of central North America, between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains from Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan south to New Mexico, Texas and Indiana. There are two varieties:
Rosa woodsii is a species of wild rose known by the common names Woods' rose, and interior rose.
Geum triflorum, (prairie smoke, three-flowered avens, or old man's whiskers) is a spring-blooming perennial herbaceous plant of North America from northern Canada to California and east to New York. The flowers bloom from mid-spring to early summer.
Amelanchier alnifolia, the saskatoon, Pacific serviceberry, western serviceberry, alder-leaf shadbush, dwarf shadbush, chuckley pear, or western juneberry, is a shrub with edible berry-like fruit, native to North America from Alaska across most of western Canada and in the western and north-central United States. Historically, it ...more ↓
Crataegus succulenta is a species of hawthorn known by the common names fleshy hawthorn, succulent hawthorn, and round-fruited cockspurthorn. It is "the most wide-ranging hawthorn in North America", native to much of southern Canada, and the United States as far south as Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina, and Tennessee. In this wide area ...more ↓
Malus ioensis, or the prairie crabapple, is a species of crabapple tree native to the United States. The most common variety, Malus ioensis var. ioensis, is found primarily in the prairie regions of the upper Mississippi Valley. Another variety, Malus ioensis var. texana, or the Texas crabapple, is found only in a small region of central ...more ↓
Ceanothus herbaceus, also known as Jersey tea, is a species of shrub in the buckthorn family, Rhamnaceae and is similar to C. americanus and C. sanguineus. It is a perennial shrub which is native to North America....
Morus alba, known as white mulberry, is a fast-growing, small to medium-sized mulberry tree which grows to 10–20 m tall. It is generally a short-lived tree with a lifespan comparable to humans, although there are some specimens known to be over 250 years old. The species is native to northern China, and is widely cultivated and naturalized elsewhere (United States, ...more ↓
Humulus lupulus (common hop or hop) is a species of flowering plant in the Cannabaceae family, native to Europe, western Asia and North America. It is a dioecious, perennial, herbaceous climbing plant which sends up new shoots in early spring and dies back to a cold-hardy rhizome in autumn.
Arctostaphylos uva-ursi is a plant species of the genus Arctostaphylos (manzanita). Its common names include kinnikinnick and pinemat manzanita, and it is one of several related species referred to as bearberry.
Lysimachia thyrsiflora, commonly known as tufted loosestrife, is a plant in the genus Lysimachia. It is native to large sections of the northern Northern Hemisphere, including Eurasia and North America. It often grows in marshes, shorelines of lakes and ponds and occasionally along streams. It is an erect perennial herb growing up to 80 centimeters tall and bearing ...more ↓
Ipomopsis longiflora (common name flaxflowered gilia or flaxflowered ipomopsis) is a plant. The Zuni people use the dried, powdered flowers and water of I. longiflora subsp. longiflora to create a poultice to remove hair on newborns and children....
Cornus sericea, syn. C. stolonifera, Swida sericea, red osier/red-osier/red osier dogwood, is a species of flowering plant in the family Cornaceae, native throughout northern and western North America from Alaska east to Newfoundland, south to Durango and Nuevo León in the west, and Illinois and Virginia in the east. Other names include red willow, redstem ...more ↓
Mentzelia decapetala (commonly known as tenpetal blazingstar, evening-star, candleflower, gumbo lily, or chalk lily) is a herbaceous biennial or short-lived perennial with large white flowers that bloom at night. It is native to dry areas in the western United States.
Asclepias incarnata, the swamp milkweed, rose milkweed, rose milkflower, swamp silkweed, or white Indian hemp, is a herbaceous perennial plant species native to North America. It grows in damp to wet soils and also is cultivated as a garden plant for its flowers, which attract butterflies and other pollinators with nectar. Like most other ...more ↓
Asclepias speciosa is a milky-sapped perennial plant in the dogbane family (Apocynaceae), known commonly as the showy milkweed.
Asclepias syriaca, commonly called common milkweed, butterfly flower, silkweed, silky swallow-wort, and Virginia silkweed, is a species of flowering plant. It is in the genus Asclepias, the milkweeds. This species is native to southern Canada and of much of the conterminous eastern U.S., east of the Rocky Mountains, excluding the drier ...more ↓
Asclepias verticillata (whorled milkweed, eastern whorled milkweed, horsetail milkweed) is a species of milkweed native to most all of eastern North America and parts of western Canada and the United States.
Asclepias viridiflora, common names green milkweed, green comet milkweed, and green-flower milkweed is a widely distributed species of milkweed known from much of the eastern and central United States from Connecticut to Georgia to Arizona to Montana, as well as southern Canada.
Apocynum cannabinum (dogbane, amy root, hemp dogbane, prairie dogbane, Indian hemp, rheumatism root, or wild cotton) is a perennial herbaceous plant that grows throughout much of North America - in the southern half of Canada and throughout the United States. It is a poisonous plant: Apocynum means "poisonous to dogs". All ...more ↓
Galium aparine, ('aparine' from Greek 'apairo' - “lay hold of” or “seize”) with many common names including cleavers, clivers, "bort", bedstraw, goosegrass, catchweed, stickyweed, stickybud, robin-run-the-hedge, sticky willy, sticky willow, stickyjack, stickeljack, and grip grass, is a herbaceous annual plant of the family Rubiaceae.
Galium boreale or northern bedstraw is a plant species of the Rubiaceae. It is widespread over the temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America including most of Canada and the northern United States.
Galium triflorum (also known as cudweed, sweet-scented bedstraw, and fragrant bedstraw) is a herbaceous plant of the family Rubiaceae. It is widespread in northern Europe (Scandinavia, Switzerland, Russia, Baltic States), eastern Asia (Kamchatka, Japan, Korea, Guizhou, Sichuan, India, Nepal) and North America (from Alaska and Greenland south to Veracruz). ...more ↓
Gentiana andrewsii, the bottle gentian, closed gentian, or closed bottle gentian, is an herbaceous species of flowering plant in the gentian family Gentianaceae. Gentiana andrewsii is native to northeastern North America, from the Dakotas to the East Coast and through eastern Canada.
Gentiana puberulenta, the downy gentian, is a branchless perennial plant of the Gentianaceae family native to North America. It is about ¾–1½' tall, with bright blue to deep blue-violet bell-shaped, upright, five-lobed flowers measuring 1½ to 2¼ inches across when fully open. Flowers grow in clusters of 1-8 at the apex of the plant. Lanceolate, sessile, glossy leaves up ...more ↓
Portulaca oleracea (common purslane, also known as verdolaga, little hogweed, red root, or pursley is an annual succulent in the family Portulacaceae, which may reach 40 centimetres (16 in) in height.
Opuntia polyacantha is a common species of cactus known by the common names plains pricklypear, hairspine cactus, panhandle pricklypear, and starvation pricklypear. It is native to North America, where it is widespread in Western Canada, the Great Plains, the central and Western United States, and Chihuahua in northern Mexico.
Rumex crispus, the curly dock, curled dock or yellow dock, is a perennial flowering plant in the family Polygonaceae, native to Europe and Western Asia.
Rumex venosus is a species of flowering plant in the knotweed family known by the common names veiny dock, winged dock, and wild-begonia (it is not related to genus Begonia). While not of any particular agricultural use, its cousins rhubarb and buckweat are. It is native to central and western North America, from southern parts of the Canadian ...more ↓
Persicaria amphibia (syn. Polygonum amphibium) is a species of flowering plant in the knotweed family known by several common names, including longroot smartweed, water knotweed, water smartweed, and amphibious bistort. It is native to much of North America, Asia, Europe, and parts of Africa, and it is known elsewhere as an introduced species ...more ↓
Persicaria lapathifolia (syn. Polygonum lapathifolium), known as pale persicaria, is a plant of the family Polygonaceae. It is closely related to Persicaria maculosa and as such is considered a weed in Britain and Europe. Other common names for the plant include pale smartweed, curlytop knotweed, and willow weed. It is a species ...more ↓
Persicaria maculosa (syn. Polygonum persicaria) is an annual plant in the buckwheat family, Polygonaceae. Common names include lady's thumb, spotted lady's thumb, Jesusplant, and redshank. It is widespread across Eurasia from Iceland south to Portugal and east to Japan. It is also present as an introduced and invasive species in North America, ...more ↓
Polygonum pensylvanicum (syn. Persicaria pensylvanica) is a species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family, Polygonaceae. It is native to parts of North America, where it is widespread in Canada and the United States. It has also been noted as an introduced species in parts of Europe and South America. Common names include Pennsylvania smartweed and ...more ↓
Gypsophila muralis (annual gypsophila, cushion baby's-breath, low baby's-breath) is an annual plant of the Caryophyllaceae family, principally native to Europe except the British Isles. It can be also found in Central Asia, Turkey, the Caucasus, and Siberia.
Mirabilis linearis (common name narrowleaf four o'clock) is a plant. Among the Zuni people, the root is eaten to induce urination and vomiting. They also take an infusion of the root for stomachache.
Mirabilis nyctaginea is a species of flowering plant in the four o'clock family known by several common names, including wild four o'clock, heartleaf four o'clock, and heartleaf umbrella wort.
Chenopodium album is a fast-growing weedy annual plant in the genus Chenopodium.
Amaranthus cruentus is a flowering plant species that yields the nutritious staple amaranth grain. It is one of three Amaranthus species cultivated as a grain source, the other two being Amaranthus hypochondriacus and Amaranthus caudatus. In Mexico, it is called huautli (Spanish pronunciation: and alegría ( and in English it has ...more ↓
Cycloloma is a monotypic genus which contains the sole species Cycloloma atriplicifolium, which is known by the common names winged pigweed, tumble ringwing, plains tumbleweed, and tumble-weed. This plant is native to central North America, but it is spreading and has been occasionally reported in far-flung areas from California to Maine ...more ↓
Celastrus scandens, commonly called American bittersweet or bittersweet, is a species of Celastrus that blooms mostly in June and is commonly found on rich, well-drained soils of woodlands. It is a sturdy perennial vine that may have twining, woody stems that are 30 feet (9.1 m) or longer and an inch or more thick at the base. The stems are yellowish-green ...more ↓
Cirsium undulatum is a species of thistle known by the common names wavyleaf thistle and gray thistle. It is native to much of central and western North America from British Columbia east to Manitoba and south as far as the State of Durango in Mexico. It has also been found outside of its native range as an introduced species.
Arctium minus, commonly known as lesser burdock, burweed, louse-bur, common burdock, button-bur, cuckoo-button, or wild rhubarb, is a biennial plant. This plant is native to Europe, but has become an invasive weed in Australia, North and South America, and other places.
Lactuca serriola, also called prickly lettuce, milk thistle (not to be confused with Silybum marianum, also called milk thistle) compass plant, and scarole, is an annual or biennial plant in the dandelion tribe within the daisy family. It has a slightly fetid odor and is commonly considered a weed of orchards, roadsides and field crops. It is ...more ↓
Brickellia eupatorioides (false boneset) is a North American species of flowering plants in the daisy family. It is widespread in Mexico from Chihuahua to Oaxaca, and in all regions of the contiguous United States except New England, New York, and the West Coast.
Eutrochium maculatum (spotted joe-pyeweed) is a North American species of flowering plants in the sunflower family. It is widespread through much of the United States and Canada. It is the only species of the genus found west of the Great Plains.
Liatris punctata is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names dotted gayfeather, dotted blazingstar, and narrow-leaved blazingstar. It is native to North America, where it occurs throughout the plains of central Canada, the central United States, and northern Mexico.
Antennaria parvifolia is a North American species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names Nuttall's pussytoes and small-leaf pussytoes (not to be confused with littleleaf pussytoes). It is native to central and western North America, where it is widespread in Canada, the United States, and northern Mexico from British Columbia east to ...more ↓
Artemisia absinthium (absinthe, absinthium, absinthe wormwood, grand wormwood, wormwood) is a species of Artemisia, native to temperate regions of Eurasia and Northern Africa and widely naturalized in Canada and the northern United States. It is grown as an ornamental plant and is used as an ingredient in the spirit absinthe as well as ...more ↓
Artemisia campestris is a common and widespread species of plants in the sunflower family. It is native to a wide region of Eurasia and North America. Common names include field wormwood, beach wormwood, northern wormwood, Breckland wormwood boreal wormwood, Canadian wormwood, field sagewort and field mugwort.
Artemisia cana is a species of sagebrush native to western and central North America, a member of the sunflower family. It known by many common names, including silver sagebrush, sticky sagebrush, silver wormwood, hoary sagebrush, and dwarf sagebrush....
Tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus), also known as estragon, is a species of perennial herb in the sunflower family. It is widespread in the wild across much of Eurasia and North America, and is cultivated for culinary and medicinal purposes.
Artemisia frigida is a widespread species of flowering plant in the aster family, which is known as the sunflower family. It is native to Europe, Asia, and much of North America. In parts of the north-central and northeastern United States it is an introduced species.
The Lakhota know this sage as "Women's Medicine." The women use this sage in their bath, or make a drink ...more ↓
Artemisia tridentata, commonly called big sagebrush,:264 Great Basin sagebrush:264 or sagebrush, is an aromatic shrub from the family Asteraceae, which grows in arid and semi-arid conditions, throughout a range of cold desert, steppe, and mountain habitats in the Intermountain West of North America. The vernacular name "sagebrush" is also used for several ...more ↓
Achillea millefolium, commonly known as yarrow /ˈjæroʊ/ or common yarrow, is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Asia, Europe, and North America. It has been introduced as a feed for livestock in places like New Zealand and Australia. However, it is a weed in those places and sometimes also in ...more ↓
Matricaria discoidea, commonly known as pineappleweed, wild chamomile, and disc mayweed is an annual plant native to North America and Northeast Asia but which has become a cosmopolitan weed. It is in the family Asteraceae. The flowers exude a chamomile/pineapple aroma when crushed. They are edible and have been used in salads (although they may become ...more ↓
Solidago rigida, also known by the common names stiff goldenrod and stiff-leaved goldenrod is a North American plant species in the Goldenrod family. It is native to the region between the Atlantic Coast and the Rockies, from Alberta east to Ontario, south as far as New Mexico, Texas, and Georgia. In New England, it grows today only in Connecticut, though there are ...more ↓
Erigeron annuus (annual fleabane, daisy fleabane, or eastern daisy fleabane) is a North American plant species in the daisy family.
Erigeron canadensis (synonym Conyza canadensis) is an annual plant native throughout most of North America and Central America. It is also widely naturalized in Eurasia and Australia. Common names include horseweed, Canadian horseweed, Canadian fleabane, coltstail, marestail, and butterweed. It was the first weed to have developed ...more ↓
Grindelia squarrosa, also known as a curly-top gumweed or curlycup gumweed, is a small North American biennial or short-lived perennial plant.
Symphyotrichum ericoides, syn. Aster ericoides (common name white heath aster, white aster or heath aster), is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native to much of North America, as well as northern Mexico. It has also been introduced to many areas beyond its native range.
Symphyotrichum falcatum (common name white prairie aster or cluster aster), is a plant.
Ericameria nauseosa (formerly Chrysothamnus nauseosus), commonly known as Chamisa, rubber rabbitbrush, and gray rabbitbrush, is a North American shrub in the sunflower family (Aster). It grows in the arid regions of western Canada, western United States (from the western Great Plains to the Pacific) and northern Mexico.
Packera cana is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name woolly groundsel. It is native to western and central North America, where it can be found in a wide array of habitat types at all elevations from grassland to the alpine climates of mountain peaks.
Packera plattensis, commonly known as prairie ragwort or prairie groundsel, is a species of the genus Packera and family Asteraceae. It used to be placed in the genus Senecio.
Bidens aristosa is a North American species of plants in the sunflower family. Common names include bearded beggarticks, western tickseed, long-bracted beggarticks, tickseed beggarticks, swamp marigold, and Yankee lice. It is native to eastern and central United States and south-central Canada, from Maine south to Florida and west as far ...more ↓
Plains coreopsis, garden tickseed, golden tickseed, or calliopsis, Coreopsis tinctoria, is an annual forb. The plant is common to Canada (from Quebec to British Columbia), northeast Mexico (Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas), and much of the United States, especially the Great Plains and Southern states where it is often called "calliopsis." The ...more ↓
Echinacea angustifolia, the narrow-leaved purple coneflower or blacksamson echinacea, is a North American plant species in sunflower family. It is widespread across much of the Great Plains of central Canada and the central United States, with additional populations in nearby regions.
Iva xanthiifolia, synonym Cyclachaena xanthiifolia, known as giant sumpweed or, in Britain and Ireland, marsh-elder, is a North American plant species in the sunflower family. It is believed to be native to the Great Plains but now found across much of southern Canada and the contiguous United States, though rarely in the Southeast. It has been ...more ↓
Helianthus annuus, the common sunflower, is a large annual forb of the genus Helianthus grown as a crop for its edible oil and edible fruits (sunflower seeds). This sunflower species is also used as bird food, as livestock forage (as a meal or a silage plant), and in some industrial applications. The plant was first domesticated in the Americas. Wild Helianthus ...more ↓
Helianthus maximiliani is a North American species of sunflower known by the common name Maximilian sunflower.
The Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus), also called sunroot, sunchoke, earth apple, or topinambour, is a species of sunflower native to eastern North America, and found from eastern Canada and Maine west to North Dakota, and south to northern Florida and Texas. It is also cultivated widely across the temperate zone for its tuber, which ...more ↓
Balsamorhiza sagittata is a North American species of flowering plant in the sunflower tribe of the aster family known by the common name arrowleaf balsamroot. It is widespread across western Canada and much of the western United States. A specimen was collected by explorer and botanist Meriwether Lewis near Lewis and Clark Pass in 1806....
Ambrosia artemisiifolia, with the common names common ragweed, annual ragweed, and low ragweed, is a species of the genus Ambrosia native to regions of the Americas.
Ambrosia trifida, the giant ragweed, is a species of flowering plant in the sunflower family. It is native to North America, where it is widespread in Canada, the United States, and northern Mexico. It is present in Europe and Asia as an introduced species, and it is known as a common weed in many regions. Its common names include great ragweed, Texan great ...more ↓
Ratibida columnifera, commonly known as upright prairie coneflower or Mexican hat, is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family, Asteraceae, that is native to much of North America. It inhabits prairies, plains, roadsides, and disturbed areas from southern Canada through most of the United States to northern Mexico.
Hymenopappus tenuifolius, the Chalk Hill hymenopappus, is a North American species of flowering plant in the daisy family. It grows in the central and southeastern United States, primarily on the Great Plains from Texas and New Mexico north as far as South Dakota.
Lobelia siphilitica, the great blue lobelia or great lobelia, is a plant species within the family Campanulaceae. It is a herbaceous, perennial dicot native to eastern and central Canada and United States. Growing up to three feet tall, it lives in zones 4 to 9 in moist to wet soils. It produces a spike of zygomorphic flowers in the late summer.