Birdsfoot Trefoil
Family Fabaceae  (common Pea)
Lotus corniculatus 

Birdsfoot trefoil is a short-lived ground-hugging perennial that was introduced to stabilize soil on stream banks.  It has clover-like compound leaves with 5 leaflets, 5-20 mm long. There is 3-8 flowers in each umbel that are small bright yellow.  The calyx is 2-4 mm long.   The corolla is 8-14 mm long Nitrogen-fixing bacteria contained in its root nodules have the ability to convert atmospheric nitrogen to nitrates that all plants need to grow.

Clover
Family Fabaceae (common Pea)
Trifolium sp.

 Perennial, legume, stems erect, leaves of basal rosette.  Leaves are palmately compound with 3 leaflets.  Flowers are 10-15 mm long, rosy purple to creamy white.  Peduncle and calyx are hairy.   Can grow on wet or dry meadows and used as feed for cattle. 

Spring vetch, common vetch
Family Fabaceae (common Pea)
Vicia sativa

The leaf is composed of 4-8 pairs of leaflets.  The flower is 10-18 mm long, with 1-2 flowers at the base of each leaf.  Corolla is purple, with violet on the winds.  Tendrils are 2-3 cm long.  Compound leaves have 8-16 opposing leaflets that are 2-3 mm wide.    Common during spring.

Hairy vetch
Family Fabaceae
Vicia villosa

Flowers are brightly colored blue-purples are produced on one side.  Leaves are alternate. Leaves for strong leafy herbage.  Drought tolerant.  Used as a crop for cattle throughout the world.  Originally from Europe.

Bermuda Buttercup
Family Oxalidaceae
Oxalis pes-caprae

Small perennial herb with trifoliate (clover-like) leaves are derived from an enlarged basal stem tip.  Flowers are bright yellow and arranged in an umbel-like inflorescences with fewer than 20 flowers each.  Yellow petals are  less than 2.5 cm in length.  Stems have a sour taste.

Cocklebur
Family Asteraceae
Xanthium strumarium 

Cocklebur is an annual weed that is common in wetland areas throughout the United States.  The fruit is a hard bur covered with hooked prickles.  It is distributed to new locations by hitching a ride on clothing or the fur of animals. The bur is said to have inspired the development of Velcro.

Bristly Ox-tongue
Family Asteraceae (sunflower)
Picris echioides

Bristly ox-tongue is a coarse, rough annual plant that grows about 1 meter high. It has stout, erect stems.  The alternate leaves are coarse-toothed to shallowly lobed and have short bristly spines on the upper surface. The showy yellow flower blooms from June to December.

Brass Buttons
Family Asteraceae (sunflower)
Cotula coronopifolia

Small annual plants with bright yellow inflorescence that is discoidal in shape. Leaves are  not hairy, irregularly lobed; flower head nearly smooth about 1 cm wide; rays absent.  Found in wet places including margins of salt marshes.   Naturalized from South Africa.

Poison Hemlock 
Family Apiaceae (parsley)
Conium maculatum

Poison Hemlock is a perennial herb, 1-2 meters tall.  The stems are smooth and hollow with a characteristic red mottling. Leaves are compound, lacy, and alternate.  The small white flowers borne in compound umbels at the top of the stalk.  The taproot is small and white with a disagreeable smell.  All plant parts are poisonous.  The seeds contain the most poison, a piperidine alkaloid.  Socrates is reputed to have been killed by being forced to drink the juice of this plant.

Wild Radish 
Family  Brassicaceae (mustard)
Raphnus sativus

The wild radish belongs to the  mustard family.  Flowers can be purple, white, or rose colored petals in the shape of a “cross.” Long, fat, dark green pods, with noticeable constrictions in pod between individual seeds. The pods have a peppery taste and may be added to a salad.

Summer Mustard
Family Brassicaceae  (mustard)
Hirschfeldia incana 

Four separate sepals, four separate petals, six stamens, and a pistil that is usually partitioned lengthwise.  Leaves range in size from 4-10 cm, densely hairy.  Flower is yellow. 

Mustard
Family Brassicaceae  (mustard)
Brassica sp.

Mustards are winter annuals. All mustard seedlings have broad seed leaves with a deep notch at the tip. The first true leaves are bright green on the upper surface and paler below. Mature mustards have dense clusters of yellow flowers at the tips of branches. Leaves are toothed, alternate, and are often deeply lobed, especially toward the base of the plant.   Flowers are more abundant than on the summer mustard, and leaves are not hairy.

Broad-leaved Pepperweed
Family  Brassicaceae (mustard)
Lepidium latifolium

Bull Thistle 
Family Asteraceae (sunflower)
Cirsuim vugare

Bull Thistle has stiff-hairy stems that can grow as high as 2 meters.  It has conspicuous prickly-winged stems.    Flower head has bract-like leaves below and is purple.  It was introduced from Eurasia.

Milk Thistle
Family Asteraceae (sunflower)
Silybum marianus

Stem Is without spines but leaves with many spines.  Purple flower head is up to 5 cm wide with spines. Like other thistles it is best known for its thorny spines. It can be distinguished from other thistles by having white veins on the dark green leaves.

Filaree
Family Geraniaceae (Geranium)
Erodium cicutarium

Filaree is a very common,  abundant plant of roadsides, fields, and semi-arid areas often carpeting large areas with bright, tiny, pink flowers. It produces blooms profusely for many weeks in the spring and continues blooming into the fall. The leaves and deep roots have a strong pungent smell. Its long, narrow, pointed heron’s bill-like seed pods (light green and vertical in the picture)  give rise to the genus name from the Greek , “Erodios,” for “Heron.”

Wild geranium, cut-leaf geranium
Family Geraniaceae (geranium)
Geranium dissectum.

Stems are short, forked and hairy.  Flowers are a deep rose-purple with 5 petals.  The leaf blades are palmately compound with the leaf margins parted nearly to the base of the blade. Introduced from Europe.

Field bindweed
Family: Convolvulaceae
Convolvulus arvensis

Alternate, petiolate, variable in shape from ovate to elliptic, to 10cm long.  Blooms from May to September.  Viny perennial with an extensive system of deep creeping roots and rhizomes.

English Plantain
Family Plantaginaceae (plantain)
Plantago lanceolata

Characterized by basal leaves (about 45 cm height) and small flowers concentrated in narrow, dense inflorescences at the stem tip. A perennial plant with leaves that grow from the rootstock on margined petioles in a basal rosette. Prefers moist meadows.  Tipped by a short spike of fine white flowers with brownish sepals and bracts that give the spike its predominantly dark color.

Marsh Mallow
Family Malvaceae (mallow)
Althaea cannabina

Perennial with woody stalks.  Flowers have 5 heart shaped petals that are pink, with a darker pink toward the center of the flower.  Height of plant grows to 2 meters.  Leaves are lobed.  A similar plant Althaea officinalis is the original marsh mallow. A. cannabina’s roots can also be used.  The roots were cooked and a marshmallow type confectionary was made.  Marshmallows today are no longer made this way. 

Sage-leaved Cistus
Family Cistaceae (Rock Rose)
Cistus salvifolicus

A bushy, evergreen shrubs that grows in coastal region.  Originally  from the Mediterranean.  Flowers are borne on long stalks and has 5 petals.  The papery blooms resembles wild rose blossoms.  The leaves are pale to deep green, hairy and with wavy leaf margins.   Groups to 30-100 cm.