Discover Amazing Types of White Wildflowers

Bold pinks, purples, and reds usually gain people’s attention the most when it comes to flowers, but there’s something to be said for delicate white flowers. There are plenty of flowers in the wild that produce stunning white flowers often overlooked. To learn more about some amazing types of white wildflowers, you’ll want to keep reading below.

1. White Clover (Trifolium repens)

Clover is a great plant. It makes for a perfect alternative to a grass lawn. It’s also a great plant to have in pastures, as it’s healthy for grazing animals. The flowers are honestly just a bonus.

Best Time to See White Clover

White clover tends to bloom between April and December. In warmer climates, it may bloom all year. However, the blooms are usually at their prettiest from April to December.

Where to Find White Clover?

White clover was originally native to Europe and Asia. Due to its many benefits, white clover is now found in almost the entirety of the US, including parts of Alaska. Pretty much anyone living in the US has seen white clover if they’ve taken the time to look.

How to Identify White Clover

The main way to tell white clover apart from other clover species is the flowers. They are actually a clump of individual flowers on a seedhead, rather than one flower. They are also white, though they may have a pinkish hue. The leaves have white bands and a rounder shape than most other clover species.

How Common Is White Clover?

White clover is incredibly common. Not only has it naturalized to the US and made itself home throughout most of the country, but many people purposefully plant it in many yards and pastures due to its benefits. When mixed with its ability to reseed even when grazed upon, you aren’t likely to wander very far before finding a patch of white clover.

2. Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata)

Despite how pretty this plant is, garlic mustard is not a great plant to find in the US. It’s invasive and heavily toxic when it’s young. If you come across these white flowers in the wild, feel free to pluck the plant. Though it’s bad for local wildlife, it’s completely edible for people.

Best Time to See Garlic Mustard

The plants will start the process of blooming by elongating their stems. This happens between March and April. Then, the flowers will start to appear at the top of the stems. There’s a rather short window where the flowers bloom, only blooming from April to May.

Where to Find Garlic Mustard?

Garlic mustard was originally from Asia and Europe, similar to white clover. However, unlike the beneficial plant above, this one has become pretty harmful. Explorers originally brought garlic mustard over to the US because of its medicinal properties and erosion control.

Now, it’s taking over the Northeast and Midwest of the United States. Some of the states you find garlic mustard in include New York, Washington, Canada, and Utah.

How to Identify Garlic Mustard

The triangular leaves of garlic mustard easily identify the plant. They are serrated on the edges and faintly heart-shaped. The flowers are bright white and have four petals. Each plant produces only one flowering stem usually.

How Common Is Garlic Mustard?

In the areas where it is out-competing with other plants, garlic mustard is an incredibly common plant to find. You will usually find it growing in large patches.

3. Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)

The bloodroot plant gets its name from the blood-red sap that comes from the plant when the stem is broken or damaged. It has many benefits, including making natural dye and being a great pollinator. However, it also contains compounds that may irritate the skin.

Best Time to See Bloodroot

Bloodroot flowers will bloom near the end of winter, and continue to bloom until late spring. However, the flowers will often lose their petals after pollination, so it’s best to look for these flowers early.

Where to Find Bloodroot?

Bloodroot is native to the easternmost parts of North America. It’s found in Canada as north as parts of Nova Scotia, and as far south as Florida in the US. It extends west to the Great Lakes and Mississippi. Bloodroot prefers to live in woodlands and floodplains, and that’s where you’ll find it most often.

How to Identify Bloodroot

Bloodroot flowers are very distinct. Eight petals are arranged symmetrically around the center of the flower. Usually, four of the petals are larger, and four are smaller. However, some of them may have up to 16 flowers. The flowers are about 2 inches in length and may be faintly pink, though it’s rare. They will open up on sunny days, but start to close up when it gets cloudy or dark.

How Common Is Bloodroot?

In the eastern part of North America, bloodroot is rather rare. However, it can be found in dense patches in some areas of the US. This isn’t a plant you’ll find during a casual scroll, however, unless you’re lucky.

4. Richardson’s Geranium (Geranium richardsonii)

Richardson’s geranium is also called white crane’s bill. You’ll find this plant most often around woodlands and streams. They like partial shade and moist soil the best.

Best Time to See Richardson’s Geranium

Richardson’s geranium produces flowers between May and August. They often flower in pairs.

Where to Find Richardson’s Geranium?

Richardson’s geranium lives in the westernmost part of the US and Canada, as well as parts of Alaska. It travels as far east as Colorado and New Mexico, though there are some of these flowers in South Dakota as well.

How to Identify Richardson’s Geranium

The best way to identify Richardson’s geranium is to look at the flowers. They have five petals that are usually white, though they are anywhere from white to lavender. Thin, purple veins branch out over every petal.

How Common Is Richardson’s Geranium?

It’s a pretty common flower. First, they have the most widespread habitat of all wild geraniums in the US. The plant is very tolerant as well, even able to handle some drought, so they survive in a variety of habitats throughout their range.

5. Striped Wintergreen (Chimaphila maculata)

This plant has a fairly confusing series of names. It’s often mistakenly called the spotted wintergreen, pipsissewa, or striped prince’s pine. However, all these names are common names for other, similar plants, such as Chimaphila umbellata.

Best Time to See Striped Wintergreen

Striped wintergreen blooms between June and August. They prefer dry areas, especially forests.

Where to Find Striped Wintergreen?

This is a plant that does best on the East Coast, mainly the northeastern part of North America, including Southern Ontario and New England. It does stretch down to Alabama and Georgia as well.

How to Identify Striped Wintergreen

The main identifying characteristic is the white stripe that runs down the rib of the dark green leaves on the plant. Small white to pink flowers full of fragrance that grow in clusters in the summer also give the plant away.

How Common Is Striped Wintergreen?

Unfortunately, this plant is pretty rare. In many states, including Illinois and Maine, the striped wintergreen plant is endangered. In other states, it’s vulnerable.

6. Angel’s Trumpets (Acleisanthes longiflora)

The small angel’s trumpet herbs are often overlooked but have the prettiest flowers when they bloom. They are part of the Nyctaginaceae flower family, which are known as four-o-clocks. They are called such as they tend to bloom in the afternoons and evenings.

Best Time to See Angel’s Trumpets

If you want to see these flowers, you’ll want to look around the local desert anytime between February and November. For the best chance of seeing these flowers at their peak, you’ll want to go between April and August.

Where to Find Angel’s Trumpets?

Though they are native to the US, they have a very limited range. You’ll find these flowers on rocky slopes of deserts in California, New Mexico, and Texas. They spread southwards a little to Mexico as well.

How to Identify Angel’s Trumpets

The flowers of angel’s trumpets are solitary, meaning they don’t grow in clumps. They have fused lobes, instead of individual petals. Each flower is only about an inch in diameter, while the tube the flower comes from is 6 inches long.

How Common Are Angel’s Trumpets?

It’s a pretty rare flower. They aren’t easy to find in the desert. They are also endangered in a few states, such as California.

7. Mojave Prickly Poppy (Argemone corymbosa)

The Mojave prickly poppy is a fairly unknown flower. They live in a very limited range where most people don’t come across them. However, they are quite pretty and have some eye-catching flowers when they bloom for the season.

Best Time to See Mojave Prickly Poppy

The Mojave prickly poppy blooms in the spring. The best time to see them is in April or May.

Where to Find Mojave Prickly Poppy?

The Mojave prickly poppy is in a very limited region. It’s pretty much only found in the Mojave Desert. It likes places with very low moisture and full sun. They are most often found close to Cima and Kelso California.

How to Identify Mojave Prickly Poppy

The best way to ID these flowers is by their leaves. They are thick with spines on the leaves that are long, but not very dense. The spines are also primarily on the underside, and sometimes the edges, of the leaves, and not on the top. The bright orange sap in the stems is also an identifier.

They are similar in appearance to the Matillija poppy The main difference is that where the Matillija poppy is large and tends to spread, the Mojave prickly poppy is rather small and doesn’t spread out.

How Common Is Mojave Prickly Poppy?

They are somewhat common in their range. The main issue is that they inhabit a very small area, so they may be difficult to find.

8. Gravel Ghost (Atrichoseris platyphylla)

If you want to talk about a flower that truly belongs on this list of amazing types of white wildflowers, then the gravel ghost is the one to talk about. Despite the harsh environment of the desert, this flower produces amazing flowers that attract pollinators.

Best Time to See The Gravel Ghost

The plant has the common name gravel ghost because they’re notoriously hard to find. Unless you’re lucky enough to find one blooming, you’re not going to easily find these plants hidden away in the cracks and crevices of a rock.

Where to Find Gravel Ghosts?

Like the Mojave prickly poppy, the gravel ghost is limited in its range to the Mojave Desert. It blooms from February to May, though the season may change based on the weather in the Desert.

How to Identify Gravel Ghosts

These plants are unique and easy to identify. They have several rows of flowers that overlap one another. The petals and flowers are yellow in the center. The tips of the petals are pinkish-purple. The rest of the flower is a stunning, brilliant white.

The plant isn’t a succulent but has leaves similar to those of a succulent. They hold onto water in the case of a prolonged drought. The leaves come in various colors, able to blend in their surroundings with a faint purple, brown, gray, or green color to keep them unnoticed.

How Common Are Gravel Ghosts?

Gravel ghosts are a pretty common sight in the desert if you know what to look for.

9. Snow Trillium (Trillium nivale)

All trillium, including the snow trillium, are part of the lily family. This is part of why they have such brilliant and showy flowers. Their name doesn’t come from their white appearance, however, but the fact that they bloom when it’s still snowy out.

Best Time to See Snow Trillium

Snow trillium is said to bring the spring with them. They are some of the earliest blooming flowers, as they appear in very late winter or early spring. They have a very short blooming period as well, only going from the middle of March to the beginning of April.

Where to Find Snow Trillium?

Snow trillium is found in the Great Lakes and the surrounding states. Some of the states you can expect to find snow trillium include Ohio, Nebraska, Michigan, Kentucky, Maryland, Illinois, and Wisconsin. They are usually found in soils with a lot of limestone or calcium deposits.

How to Identify Snow Trillium

The best way to ID it is by size. It’s one of the smallest trilliums in the area. The plant usually has three leaves that are dark green and petioled and no more than 5 centimeters long. For the flowers, they are bright white with three petals. The petals are showy and can be curved or erect. There’s usually one flower per stalk, and the flowers are up to 4 centimeters long.

How Common Is Snow Trillium?

Snow trillium is not very common at all. They are thought to be very rare, though they can be in dense populations in areas where they are found.

10. Hedge Bindweed (Calystegia sepium)

Does this flower look familiar, but you’ve never heard the name? You might recognize the more widely-used common name, morning glory. Though it’s pretty, it takes over gardens and fields, strangling other plants trying to grow in the area.

Best Time to See Hedge Bindweed

Hedge bindweed starts blooming in June or July and continues until the temperatures get too cold. Usually, the flower will open in the morning and close in the afternoon unless the conditions are suitable. Each flower tends to stay only a day before another comes and takes its place.

Where to Find Hedge Bindweed?

Hedge bindweed is found throughout all of North America except in the very north where it is cold most of the time. They enjoy almost every habitat, including the sides of roads, areas where waste is dumped, streams, and forests. They also love gardens and farms.

How to Identify Hedge Bindweed

Hedge bindweed is a vining plant that uses other crops and plants in the area to get to higher elevations. It has a bad habit of strangling other plants. The flowers are trumpet-shaped and white.

Hedge bindweed looks similar to another species of bindweed, known as field bindweed. The biggest difference between the two is that hedge bindweed is bigger in both leaves and flowers. It also is more of a climbing plant, whereas field bindweed is a crawling plant. However, they are both problematic and damaging to crops in the area.

How Common Is Hedge Bindweed?

Hedge bindweed is very common. They proliferate quickly. All you need is a little bit of the rhizome of the plant, and you’ll find yourself with more than you know what to do with. Unfortunately, it’s so good at proliferating that once it’s established, it’s almost impossible to get rid of.

Summary of the Most Amazing Types of White Wildflowers