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St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lee Enterprises

Tuesday, April 29, 2008 9:15 PM CDT
Spring field flowers like a green light for farmers

By DENNIS BOWMAN

Many folks think of daffodils and tulips as the flowers of spring. However, farmers have been anxiously waiting for some other flowers that signal the arrival of spring out on the prairie. Many fields now have white, yellow and purple flowers in bloom, a good sign that it is now finally warm enough for active plant growth. Those first yellow dandelion blooms after a long dreary winter are a welcome sight for many, even if their welcome may be short lived for many.

Before the cultivators and planters arrive many fields suddenly become a vast purple carpet. The purple flowers are probably henbit or purple deadnettle. Both plants are in the mint family and easily identified by their square stem.

The tiny white flowers of pepperweed and shepherd’s purse are easy to see in many fields.

The showiest of the spring field flowers turns some fields to a sea of bright yellow blossoms, but it is one of the last to bloom. This bright yellow flower is a plant commonly called Butterweed. Many farmers may call it by even more “colorful” names that can’t be repeated in polite company. Let’s just say that they put the emphasis on the “weed” portion of the name rather than the “butter” half. This weed didn’t really show up in these large patches until the early 1990’s. The adoption of no-till corn and soybean production allow more opportunity for these winter annual weeds to become established in the fields.

Butterweed is in the Aster family, along with plants such as dandelion and sunflower. If you take apart one of the yellow Butterweed flowers you will find out that it is made up of a bunch of little flower parts just like dandelion and sunflower. Butterweed also has a thick, smooth hollow stem with the leaves arranged alternately along the stem.

Butterweed is not the only yellow flowering plant you may run into in the field. The other common yellow flowering plants belong in the mustard family. All mustard flowers have four petals on a simple flower.

Dennis Bowman is an Extension educator, crop systems, for University of Illinois Extension.

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