MO WILD
PLANT ID

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Plant Type
Invasive & Naturalized
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plant
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What plant is this?
Plant Family:
🔬Show Traits
Edible & Use
Habitat & Conditions
Bloom / Season
ID Features
Photos: iNaturalist · Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)
Medicinal: Moerman's Native American Ethnobotany
🌿 ID Wizard 📌 Saved QUICK ID
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Start typing to search 819 species
PLANT TRAITS
ID Wizard
819 species

⚠ Disclaimer

This app is a learning tool, not a field guide. Never rely on it as your only source before eating, touching, or using any wild plant.

Photos can mislead. Lookalikes exist. If you are not 100% certain of an ID, do not eat it.

Edible, medicinal, and hazard flags are based on published sources but are not perfect. Errors are possible. You assume all risk.

The creator is not a botanist, pharmacist, or medical professional. Nothing here is medical advice.

If you suspect poisoning, call Poison Control immediately:
1-800-222-1222

By using this app you accept that the creator assumes no liability for misidentification, allergic reactions, poisoning, or any other harm.

⚑ Report an Issue

Your report will open in your default email app, pre-filled and ready to send.

Welcome

MO Wild Plant ID is a flashcard app for learning Missouri wild plants by sight.

For roughly 12,000 generations, people knew which plants grew around them, which ones were food, and which ones would kill you. In three or four generations the grocery store replaced all of it.

This app is a step toward closing that gap. 819 species that grow in Missouri right now, in fields and creek bottoms and roadsides across the state.

What Can You Do Here

Identify a plant: The ID Wizard narrows 819 species step by step.

Filter by traits: 10 filters including flower color, petal count, leaf shape, and more. Tap ? visual guide to select from illustrations.

Learn by flashcard: See a photo, guess the plant, tap to check. Missed plants come back more often.

On the card back: Tap colored sections to expand. Tap 🔑 Insight for name clues. Tap 🔬 Show Traits for flags and data. Tap Plant Family to browse related species.

Save plants with the pin button to build a study list.

Badges

Badges on photos tell you what matters at a glance:

🍽️Edible ☠️Toxic / Hazardous ⚠️Dangerous Lookalike 🐝Pollinator Friendly ⚕️Medicinal Skin Irritant

Tap any badge on a photo to see its label.

Add to Home Screen

This is a web app. Add it to your phone home screen for an app-like experience:

iPhone: Tap Share then Add to Home Screen
Android: Tap Menu then Add to Home Screen

The story behind this app

Full disclaimer

Contact the developer

Plant identification carries real risk. Do not eat any plant based solely on this app.

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The Grocery Store Generation™

I grew up in Crawford County and spent most of my life surrounded by people who could not name a single plant growing in their own yard. That is not an insult. It is an observation about what I now call The Grocery Store Generation™.

For roughly 12,000 generations, people knew where food came from. Not from a label on a package. They knew which plants grew where, when they fruited, how to prepare them, and which ones would kill you. That knowledge was not optional. It was passed down for thousands of generations without interruption.

In three or four generations we replaced all of it with a single interface: the grocery store. Most people alive today cannot identify more than a handful of wild plants and could not feed themselves from a landscape if they needed to. A species that loses knowledge of its own food supply has introduced a fragility that did not exist before.

This app is my attempt to start closing that gap in Crawford County and across Missouri. The plants in this deck grow here, right now, in fields and creek bottoms and roadsides across the state. Most Missourians drive past them every day without knowing their names.

Learning to identify them is a start. It is not enough, but it is a start.

Daniel Dandelion, Crawford County, MO

Leaf Arrangement
TAP TO SELECT
Alternate
Leaves stagger along the stem, one per node
Opposite
Leaves in pairs across from each other
Whorled
Three or more leaves radiate from the same point
Basal
All leaves emerge from the base of the plant
Flower Shape
TAP TO SELECT
Radial
Petals arranged evenly around center — daisies, roses, buttercups
Bilateral
Mirror symmetry, one plane only — pea flowers, mints, violets
Leaf Type
TAP TO SELECT
Simple
One blade per leaf. Oak, maple, elm.
Compound
Multiple leaflets on one stem. Hickory, walnut, ash.
Simple leaves have one blade. Compound leaves have multiple separate leaflets on a single leaf stem.
Stem Cross-Section
TAP TO SELECT
Square
4 flat sides. Mints.
Triangular
3 edges. Sedges.
Round
Rolls smoothly. Most plants.
Roll the stem between your fingers. Sedges have edges, rushes are round.
Leaf Edge
TAP TO SELECT
Smooth
No teeth or lobes. Dogwood, redbud.
Toothed
Saw-like teeth. Elm, cherry.
Lobed
Deep fingers. Oak, maple.
Look at the edge of the leaf. Smooth edges have no teeth or notches. Toothed edges have small points like a saw. Lobed edges have deep indentations creating finger-like projections.
Petal Count
TAP TO SELECT
3
4
5
6+
Lilies, irises
Many
Water lilies, cacti
Composite
Daisies, sunflowers
Composite flowers look like one flower but are actually many tiny flowers packed together. Daisies, sunflowers, coneflowers, asters, and goldenrod are all composites.
Add to Home Screen for an app-like experience
Species Known