Florida's Wildflowers
White

On this page - Dog fennel, Pineland daisy, Swamp lily, Mangrove swamp lily, Musky mint, Beggerticks, Blackroot, Moonflower, Bog white violet, Bowstring Hemp, False Daisy, Cottonweed

Dog Fennel - Eupatorium capillifolium

Family - Asteraceae
Habitat - Margins & openings of forests, dry to moist prairie, margins of marshes.

Tall semi-woody herbaceous perennial to seven or more feet tall, usually with several long straight stems. Leaves are finely dissected and liner or thread-like in appearance. Dog fennel produces dense paniculiform or panicle-like arrays of small white flowers from summer through fall.

Beggerticks - Bidens alba

Family - Asteraceae

Native annual or weak perennial wildflower 1 to 3 feet tall, spreading up to 3 feet. Common to pinelands, scrub, dry prairie, ruderal sites, road sides. Grows on moist to very dry loamy to sandy soils. Larval host for the Dainty sulphur butterfly and visited by many other bees, wasps and butterflies as a source of nectar.

Flower is 1 inch in diameter with a central disk composed of many yellow tubular florets, surrounded by 5-8 white, strap shaped, ray florets. Flowers may be produced year-round, most prolific blooming during the warm, rainy months.

Leaves are compound, lobed with toothed margins

Moonflower, Tropical White Morning-glory - Ipomoea alba

Family - Convolvulaceae
Habitat - Mesic Hammocks, margins of Mangrove Swamps, fresh and salt marshes.

Native fast growing annual herbaceous vine. Climbs by twining, milky sap. Leaves are ovate to nearly circular in shape with a cordate base. Grows best in moist soils with full sun. Fragrant, white funnel shaped flowers to 5-6 inches in diameter, evening bloom lasts until the following morning.

Pineland Daisy, Wooly Sunbonnets - Chaptalia tomentosa

Family - Asteraceae
Habitat - Wet Pinewoods

Native perennial herb 12-18 inches tall when flowering. Basal rosette of elliptic to obovate leaves with entire, sometimes undulate margins. White flower 1 1/4 inches wide has numerous rays with the underside tinged pink.

Swamp Lily, Seven Sisters, String Lily - Crinum americanum

Family - Liliaceae
Habitat - Streams, creeks and marshes.

Native perennial herb, an emersed plant with spreading, leathery, linear leaves to 4 feet long, frequently with a purple or reddish tint. Clusters of 6 petal, tubular, white or white/pink fragrant flowers are produced on a separate cylindrical succulent stalk throughout the year.

Mangrove Spiderlily - Hymenocallis latifolia

Family - Amaryllidaceae

Mangrove spiderlily is found in the southern half of Florida in mangrove swamps and coastal swales and hammocks on moist and saturated soils. Blooming period is from spring through fall, the fragrant flowers being produced on a tall scape in terminal clusters with up to a dozen or more white flowers.

Musky Mint, Clustered Bushmint - Hyptis alata

Family - Lamiacaea
Habitat - Wet pinelands, wet prairie.

Native perennial herb, 3 to 4 feet tall. White flowers are arranged in dense clustered heads 1 1/4 inches across.

Blackroot - Pterocaulon pycnostachyum

Family - Asteraceae
Habitat - Dry open Pinelands, Sandhill

Native, perennial forb, herb, 1-2 feet in height, often solitary or in scattered, small populations. Silvery pubescent stem, slender, linear green leaf with white mid-vein. Showy compact spikes of white flower heads, often tinged pinkish-purple at tip.

Bowstring Hemp - Sansevieria hyacinthoides

Family - Agavaceae
Native to Africa. Perennial herbaceous category 2 plant with waxy, mottled leaves. Height to about 3 feet. Dry to moist sites, primarily on and around old home sites. This plant is one of over fifty species of Sansevieria,forms large dense patches spreading from rhizomes. Native to Africa. As the name implies fibers from the leaves have been and are used to make string and rope.

Bog White Violet, Lance-leaf Violet - Viola lanceolata

Family - Violaceae
Habitat - Swamps, Bogs, Wet Pinelands

Florida native perennial herb, 3-6 inches tall. Leaf form is variable, generally lanceolate leaves to 4 inches long, margins entire, smooth with the flower stalks rising above the basal leaves. Found growing in bogs, marshes and other wet sandy soils. White flowers about 1/2 inch across, with brownish purple veins or striations on the lower petals.

Carolina Yellow-eyed grass - Xyris caroliniana

Family - Xyridaceae (Yellow-eyed Grass Family)

Go to Yellow-eyed grass for description

False Daisy - Eclipta prostrata

Family - Asteraceae (Aster family)
Native to Florida, False daisy may grow as an annual or as a perennial on moist to wet soils . Stems to 28 inches long (+/-) and are erect or decumbent, leaves are green, simple, lanceolate with serrate margins, clasping, opposite, and rough to the touch.

Flowers more profusely in summer, will bloom year-round if conditions permit, composite flower heads are 10 mm or less in diameter.

Roundleaf thoroughwort - Eupatorium rotundifolium

Family - Asteraceae
Native perennial of moist flatwoods habitat, growing from 15 to 49 inches tall with a single stem arising from a short rhizome, sparsely branched near the top. White flowers are produced in a corymb fashion. There are three varieties of this species as well as hybrids of the three, the main distiguishing characteristic being their leaf forms.

Cottonweed, Plains snakecotton - Froelichia floridana

Family - Amaranthaceae
Native herbaceous annual to 70 cm in height. Growth form of this plant is extremely variable, ranging from a single stem up to 70 inches to the more common shrub like form of several unbranched or sparingly branched stems arising from a basal rosette of leaves, stems may be ascending/spreading or procumbent, the stems have short whitish or brown hairs.

Leaves are opposite, only on the proximal (lower) third of the stems and are petiolate with the leaf blade being lanceolate to oblanceolate, oblong, or linear. These variations are believed to be at least partialy brought about by geographic location.

Reportedly rare in South Florida this plant is found on the sandy well drained soils of scrub or sandhill habitats and dry sandy disturbed areas with full sun exposure and without much competeing vegetation.

Terminal spikes of white, cottony flowers that give this plant its common names are produced in the summer.