Tree dictionary
Trees of Missouri
93 native trees and 14 invasive ones: how to know them, where they grow, and what a tree company sees when it looks at one.
By county: Adair County, Boone County, Buchanan County, Butler County, Cape Girardeau County, Cass County, Christian County, Clay County, Cole County, Franklin County, Greene County, Jackson County, Jasper County, Jefferson County, Johnson County, Laclede County, Lincoln County, Marion County, Newton County, Perry County, Pettis County, Phelps County, Platte County, Randolph County, Saline County, Scott County, St. Charles County, St. Francois County, St. Louis City, St. Louis County, Ste. Genevieve County
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Missouri's signature forest tree, with rounded-lobed leaves, light gray flaky bark and a broad crown. Grows on uplands and slopes statewide and lives for centuries.
Photo: Marty Aligata at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Thick corky bark, big fringed acorns and leaves widest near the tip. Found in bottoms, prairies and savannas across the state; tolerates drought and fire.
Photo: Heath Cajandig · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Cross-shaped leaves and a stocky form, common on dry rocky ridges in the Ozarks and southern counties. Slow-growing and long-lived.
Photo: Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Coarsely toothed leaves like a chestnut's and flaky gray bark. Favors limestone slopes and bluffs, which Missouri has plenty of.
Photo: Vojtěch Zavadil · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Two-toned leaves, dark green above and whitish below, with peeling bark on young limbs. Grows in bottomlands and wet flats, mostly north and east.
Photo: Bruce Marlin · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons
Acorn cups that nearly cover the nut. A tree of swamps and flooded bottoms in the Bootheel and along the big rivers.
Photo: Unknown author · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Large wavy-toothed leaves and sweet acorns wildlife favor. Found in rich bottomland forests of southeastern Missouri.
Photo: Jaknouse at English Wikipedia · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Pointed-lobed leaves, bark with shiny flat ridges, and fast growth for an oak. Common on moist slopes and in yards statewide.
Photo: No machine-readable author provided. Velela assumed (based on copyright claims). · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Dark blocky bark with yellow-orange inner bark, glossy leaves. One of the most common upland oaks in the Ozarks.
Photo: Willow · CC BY 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons
Deeply cut leaves that turn brilliant red in fall. A dry-ridge tree of the Ozarks and eastern Missouri.
Photo: Famartin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Pyramid shape with lower limbs that droop, small deeply cut leaves, and leaves that hang on through winter. Native to wet bottoms, planted everywhere.
Photo: Bruce Marlin · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons
A big handsome red oak of bottomlands and lower slopes, mostly southern and eastern Missouri. Good red fall color.
Photo: Tmasjeg · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Leaves with a long drooping end lobe and a rounded base. Found on dry uplands in the southern tier of counties.
Photo: Unknown author · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
The tallest oak of the Bootheel bottomlands, with scaly bark like a black cherry's. Valued timber.
Photo: miguelvieira · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Small, scrubby, with thick leathery club-shaped leaves and black blocky bark. Dry rocky glades and ridges of the Ozarks.
Photo: DeepFork (talk) (Uploads) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
An oak with smooth, unlobed leaves like a laurel's. Common statewide on slopes and in fencerows.
Photo: Unknown author · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Narrow willow-like leaves on a true oak. Native to Bootheel bottoms and widely planted as a street tree.
Photo: Freekhou5 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Spatula-shaped leaves of varied outline. A Bootheel bottomland tree at the north edge of its range.
Photo: Unknown author · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
A red oak of heavy, wet Bootheel soils, now widely planted for its tolerance and fall color.
Photo: Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Named for the long bark plates that curl away from the trunk. Five leaflets, sweet nuts, found statewide on slopes and bottoms.
Photo: Famartin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Like shagbark but with seven leaflets and the largest nuts of any hickory. A bottomland tree, mostly along the larger rivers.
Photo: Robert H. Mohlenbrock. USDA SCS. Midwest wetland flora: Field office illustrated guide to plant species. · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Fuzzy leaf undersides, tight furrowed bark, and nuts with thick shells and little meat. Common on Ozark uplands.
Photo: Photo by David J. Stang · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Smooth-looking leaves, pear-shaped nuts, tight bark. Dry upland woods across the southern two-thirds of the state.
Photo: Unknown author · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Bright yellow winter buds give it away. Moist woods and bottoms statewide; the fastest-growing hickory.
Photo: No machine-readable author provided. MPF assumed (based on copyright claims). · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Native to the Missouri and Mississippi river bottoms and the Bootheel; many leaflets and the familiar nut. Planted well beyond its range.
Photo: Bruce Marlin · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A smaller hickory of dry Ozark ridges, with dark bark and rusty-scaled buds.
Photo: Te Chang · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Dark furrowed bark, long compound leaves, and the round green-husked nuts that stain everything. Rich bottoms and slopes statewide; Missouri leads the nation in wild nut harvest.
Photo: Unknown author · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Gray bark and oblong sticky nuts; a cousin of black walnut found in moist woods of the eastern Ozarks. Uncommon and declining.
Photo: H. Zell · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Five-lobed leaves with smooth edges and the best orange fall color of any native tree. Rich wooded slopes, mostly the eastern half and the Ozark border.
Photo: Superior National Forest · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Deeply cut leaves silvery underneath, fast growth, and shaggy bark. Native to river bottoms statewide and planted in countless yards.
Photo: Darkone (talk · contribs) · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons
Red twigs, red flowers in late winter and red fall leaves. Native to the eastern Ozarks and Bootheel swamps; cultivars planted everywhere.
Photo: Ayotte, Gilles, 1948- · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A maple with compound leaves, often mistaken for poison ivy as a seedling. Grows fast in bottoms, fencerows and neglected lots statewide.
Photo: CK Kelly · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A close relative of sugar maple with drooping three-lobed leaves and darker bark, found on moist slopes in northern and central Missouri.
Photo: Daderot · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
The vase-shaped shade tree of old main streets, with lopsided double-toothed leaves. Native to bottoms statewide; Dutch elm disease has taken most large ones.
Photo: Marty Aligata · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Native
Rough sandpaper leaves and a slimy inner bark once used as a remedy. Moist slopes and bottoms statewide.
Corky wings along the twigs and small leaves. A tree of dry uplands and old fields in the southern half of the state.
Photo: Ronnie Nijboer · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Corky ridges on older twigs and the hardest wood of any elm. Uncommon, on limestone slopes in northern and central Missouri.
Photo: Ronnie Nijboer · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Small stiff leaves and late-summer flowering, at the edge of its range in southwest and southeast Missouri bottoms.
Photo: Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Diamond-furrowed bark, opposite compound leaves whitish underneath, purple fall color. Upland woods statewide.
Photo: Willow · CC BY 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons
The common bottomland ash, planted by the thousands as a street tree for decades. Leaves green on both sides.
Photo: Jerzy Opioła · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Square twigs set it apart. Limestone slopes and glades of the Ozarks and central Missouri.
Photo: Mason Brock (Masebrock) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
A swamp ash with a swollen, pumpkin-shaped base, in Bootheel wetlands.
Photo: Wdvanhem · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Missouri's fastest-growing and often largest tree, with triangular leaves that rattle in wind and cottony seeds in June. River bottoms and wet ground statewide.
Photo: Laurent Bélanger · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Rounder, heart-shaped leaves than eastern cottonwood, in Bootheel swamps and sloughs.
Photo: Robert H. Mohlenbrock. USDA NRCS. 1995. Northeast wetland flora: Field office guide to plant species. Northeast National Technical Center, Chester. Courtesy of USDA NRCS Wetland Science Institute. · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
The native streambank willow, often with several leaning trunks and dark rough bark. Statewide along water.
Photo: Bruce Marlin · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons
Broader leaves than black willow, along streams and lakes mainly in the northern and western counties.
Photo: Unknown author · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
White upper bark peeling in patches, huge leaves and dangling seed balls. Creek and river bottoms statewide; among the largest trees in the state.
Photo: Marty Aligata · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Warty, corky bark and lopsided leaves; purple berries birds love. Bottoms, slopes and city lots statewide, tough as nails.
Photo: Chhe (talk) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
The southern hackberry, smoother-barked with narrower leaves, in Bootheel and southern bottomlands.
Photo: Gaberlunzi (Richard Murphy) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Dark scaly bark like burnt potato chips, glossy leaves and small black cherries in summer. Fencerows and woods statewide.
Photo: Unknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A thicket-forming small tree with white spring flowers and red-yellow plums. Fencerows and woodland edges statewide.
Photo: Homer Edward Price · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Mitten-shaped leaves in three forms on one tree, spicy-scented twigs, orange fall color. Old fields and woodland edges across the southern two-thirds.
Photo: Randy Everette · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Tall and straight with square-tipped leaves and tulip-shaped green-and-orange flowers in May. Native to the eastern Ozarks and Bootheel; planted widely.
Photo: Jean-Pol GRANDMONT · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Star-shaped leaves, corky twigs and the spiky gum balls that litter yards. Native to the Bootheel and southeastern bottoms, planted statewide.
Photo: Famartin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Horizontal branching, glossy leaves that turn scarlet early, blocky bark. Dry Ozark ridges and acid flats in the southern half.
Photo: Eric Hunt · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Swollen buttressed trunk standing in Bootheel swamp water beside bald cypress.
Photo: Nhu Nguyen · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Blocky black bark and orange fruit that is mouth-puckering until frost. Old fields and edges across the southern two-thirds.
Photo: Peterwchen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Wicked branched thorns on wild trees, fine feathery leaves and long twisted pods. Bottoms and pastures statewide; thornless forms are planted.
Photo: Plant Image Library from Boston, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A swamp locust with short oval pods, in Bootheel wetlands.
Photo: François André Michaux (book author), Augustus Lucas Hillhouse (translator), iii (illustrator), eee (engraver) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Deeply furrowed bark, paired thorns at the leaf bases and fragrant white flowers in May. Native to the Ozarks, spread statewide along roads and fields.
Photo: Pollinator at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Huge twice-compound leaves, thick leathery pods and a coarse, bare winter look. Rich bottoms and slopes, scattered statewide.
Photo: Jean-Pol GRANDMONT · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Pink-purple flowers on bare branches in early April, then heart-shaped leaves. Woodland edges statewide and a favorite yard tree.
Photo: Greg Hume · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Missouri's state tree: white bracts in April, red berries and maroon fall leaves, under taller trees in the Ozarks and eastern counties.
Photo: Eric Hunt · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Big lopsided heart-shaped leaves and fragrant June flowers that hum with bees. Moist slopes and bottoms, more common north and east.
Photo: Plant Image Library · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Salmon-pink peeling bark and doubly toothed leaves. Native along streams statewide; the most planted birch in Missouri yards.
Photo: Greg Hume · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Smooth gray bark, papery winter leaves on young trees, and triangular nuts. In Missouri only in the far southeast, Bootheel ridges and the eastern Ozark foothills.
Photo: Marqqq · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Five leaflets in a fan, yellow spring flowers and shiny brown nuts in spiny husks. Rich bottoms and slopes, mostly the eastern half.
Photo: Unknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Red tubular flowers that hummingbirds visit in April, in the Bootheel and southeastern lowlands.
Photo: Eric Hunt · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Big drooping tropical-looking leaves and the largest native fruit, like a mango-banana in September. Moist bottoms and shaded slopes statewide.
Photo: Scott Bauer, USDA · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
NativeSmooth gray bark with muscle-like ridges, along streams under taller trees in the southern and eastern counties.
Photo: Photo by and (c)2005 Derek Ramsey (Ram-Man) · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons
Shreddy bark in thin strips and hop-like seed clusters. Dry wooded slopes statewide.
Photo: Eric Hunt · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The first white bloom in the woods each March, then sweet purple berries in June. Bluffs and slopes across the Ozarks and eastern Missouri.
Photo: Dcrjsr · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Large sandpapery leaves, some mitten-lobed, and dark purple fruit in June. Moist woods and bottoms statewide; hybridizes with the invasive white mulberry.
Photo: Douglas Goldman · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Native
Thorny, with orange-brown furrowed bark and softball-sized green fruit. Native to the southwest corner, planted as hedgerows statewide before barbed wire.
A conifer that drops its feathery needles each fall, with buttressed trunks and knees rising from swamp water. Native to the Bootheel and lower Mississippi lowlands; planted statewide.
Photo: Unknown author · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
The evergreen that takes over every unmowed pasture and glade, with shreddy red bark and blue berry-like cones. Statewide.
Photo: Famartin · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Missouri's only native pine: needles in twos and threes, plated bark with resin pockets. Ozark ridges and sandy soils in the southern counties.
Photo: Unknown author · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Large simple leaves and green, cucumber-shaped seed cones. Rare in Missouri, on moist slopes in the eastern Ozarks.
Photo: Bruce Marlin · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Two-foot leaves in umbrella-like whorls at the branch tips, in shaded ravines of the southeastern Ozarks.
Photo: Eric Hunt · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The evergreen Christmas holly, native to the Bootheel and southeastern lowlands and planted farther north.
Photo: Unknown author · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Bare gray branches loaded with red berries all winter. Wet bottoms and stream edges across the southern half.
Photo: Eric Hunt · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Flat white flower clusters in May and blue-black fruit; a small stiff tree of woodland edges statewide.
Photo: Robert H. Mohlenbrock. USDA SCS · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Four-lobed pink capsules that split to show red seeds in fall. Moist woods and fencerows statewide.
Photo: Mason Brock (Masebrock) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Huge heart-shaped leaves, orchid-like white flowers in June and long bean pods. Native to the Bootheel bottoms; planted and naturalized statewide.
Photo: Mark Wagner · CC BY 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons
A native chestnut of dry Ozark ridges, now mostly stump sprouts killed back by chestnut blight before they bear.
Photo: Eric Hunt · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Fragrant pink spring flowers and small hard green apples, in prairie edges and open woods, mostly north and west.
Photo: M.S. del, J.N.Fitch, lith. · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Dozens of hard-to-tell-apart native species: thorny small trees with white spring flowers and red haws. The state flower comes from this group. Pastures and edges statewide.
Photo: Nadiatalent · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Smoky pink flower plumes in June and the best fall color on Ozark limestone glades, where it is native and uncommon.
Photo: Sten Porse · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A spiny single stem topped by enormous compound leaves and a cloud of white summer flowers. Moist woods in the Ozarks and southeast.
Photo: Eric Hunt · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Smooth gray beech-like bark and hanging white flower chains in late May. Rare in the wild, on limestone bluffs of the southern Ozarks; planted in yards.
Photo: செல்வா · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A small elm relative with warty fruit, standing in Bootheel swamp margins.
Photo: François André Michaux (book author), Augustus Lucas Hillhouse (translator), Henri-Joseph Redouté (illustrator), Gabriel (engraver), Nonenmac (eraser) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Glossy leaves with straight veins and red-to-black berries, on limestone slopes in the Ozarks.
Photo: Mason Brock (Masebrock) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
The thicket dogwood of fencerows and prairie edges statewide, with white flower clusters and white berries.
Photo: photo by John Knouse · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
The white-flowering, fish-smelling street tree of every subdivision, now seeding into fields and roadsides across Missouri as thorny wild thickets. Selling it is banned in Missouri as of 2025.
Photo: Bruce Marlin · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Long compound leaves with a glandular notch at each leaflet base, rank odor, and smooth gray bark. Spreads by root suckers and millions of seeds along roads, railroads and lots statewide. Host of the spotted lanternfly.
Photo: Darkone (talk · contribs) · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons
Small single-toothed leaves and gray furrowed bark; planted for shelterbelts, now seeding into pastures and fencerows, especially west and north.
Photo: Tiarescott · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Glossy, smooth-topped leaves and white-to-purple fruit; brought for silkworms, now in fencerows and lots statewide and crossing with native red mulberry.
Photo: Emőke Dénes · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Fern-like leaves and pink powder-puff flowers in summer, escaping along roads and streams in the southern half of the state.
Photo: Famartin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Huge velvety heart-shaped leaves and purple foxglove-like flowers before the leaves; seeds blow into disturbed ground, bluffs and roadsides, mostly southern and eastern Missouri.
Photo: Jean-Pol GRANDMONT · CC BY 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons
The large shrub that greens up first and drops last, with hollow stems and red berries, crowding out everything under the trees in woodlots and parks across Missouri.
Photo: Eric Hunt · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Silver-backed leaves, fragrant spring flowers and red speckled berries; planted for wildlife, now blanketing old fields and roadsides statewide.
Photo: KENPEI · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Semi-evergreen hedge shrub with small opposite leaves and blue-black berries, forming thickets in bottomland woods, worst in the southern counties.
Photo: Unknown author · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons
A planted shade tree with milky sap in the leaf stem and dense shade; seeds into woodlands in the eastern counties and the St. Louis area.
Photo: Martin Bobka (= Martin120) · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons
Yellow summer flowers and papery lantern pods; escaping from yards into bluffs and roadsides, mainly around St. Louis and the eastern Ozarks.
Photo: Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
An Asian oak with chestnut-like bristle-toothed leaves, planted for deer and now spreading into native woods in the Ozarks.
Photo: Daderot · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Silvery narrow leaves and thorny twigs, scattered along streams and roadsides, more in the northern and western counties.
Photo: Katrin Schneider / korina.info · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Corky bark, bright yellow inner bark and black berries; a planted tree now seeding into woods around St. Louis and Columbia.
Photo: Bruce Marlin · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
County records come from GBIF, the public database of herbarium specimens and verified observations. A county with no record for a species means nobody has filed one, not that the tree is absent. Descriptions are general; for identification help, the Missouri Department of Conservation field guide is the authority.