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For Your Garden - September 2016

Native plants provide beauty as well as food and shelter for wildlife. Native species are adapted to the Illinois climate. They require little or no watering and are resistant to drought, insects and most diseases.

white prairie clover (Dalea candida)

White prairie clover grows in prairies throughout Illinois. Several stems develop from a single root. Stems may attain a height of up to two feet. Flowers are produced from June through October. Each flower has one large petal and four smaller ones. These small, white flowers are on cylindrical heads at the stem tip. Each flower spike may be up to two inches long. The leaves are arranged alternately along the stem and have five to nine thin leaflets. This species is good for attracting pollinators.

Classification and taxonomy are based on Mohlenbrock, Robert H. 2014. Vascular flora of Illinois: A field guide. Fourth edition. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale. 536 pp.

Illinois Range

Native Plant Information

For more information about Illinois native plants, visit our Native Habitat Descriptions, Requirements, and Plant Lists page. The following publications are available from the IDNR on our publications page.

Taxonomy

​Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae

Illinois Status: common, native