Trying to identify a wildflower usually starts with the most obvious clue available: what color is it? Color alone won't always get you to a definitive answer — plenty of unrelated species share a shade of purple or yellow — but it's the fastest way to narrow a few hundred possibilities down to a handful. Below, Maine's verified native plants are grouped by the color you're most likely to see them in, with the specific details that separate one species from another once you've narrowed down the palette.
White and Cream Wildflowers
Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is probably the most-seen white wildflower in the state, recognizable by its flat-topped flower clusters and finely divided, almost feathery foliage that smells sharp and herbal when crushed. Common Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) blooms later, in August and September, in wet meadows and ditches, and has a distinctive tell in its leaves: they're fused in pairs directly around the stem, so the stem appears to pierce straight through a single long leaf. Culver's Root (Veronicastrum virginicum) sends up narrow white candelabra-like spikes in July from whorls of leaves arranged in rings around the stem — look for that whorled leaf pattern to confirm it. In the woods rather than the meadow, Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) produces frothy, airy white spikes over heart-shaped leaves in April and May, and Foxglove Beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis) shows up in early summer with loose clusters of white tubular flowers in drier, sunnier fields. If the white flowers in front of you are perfectly spherical balls rather than a spike or flat cluster, and you're standing near a pond or wet edge, you're likely looking at Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) — a shrub rather than an herbaceous wildflower, but a common source of confusion given how unusual its bloom shape is.
Yellow and Orange Wildflowers
Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) is the classic yellow-with-a-dark-center wildflower, blooming from June through frost with rough, hairy foliage and stems. Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea) blooms much earlier, in May, with flat-topped clusters of small yellow flowers on a plant that's often mistaken for an early goldenrod — the bloom time is the giveaway, since true goldenrods wait until late summer. That includes Showy Goldenrod (Solidago speciosa), which blooms in September and October with dense, upright yellow spikes and is far less aggressive in spreading than some of its roadside relatives. Lanceleaf Coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata) offers a simpler daisy-like yellow flower on narrow leaves, blooming through early summer in dry, sunny sites. For orange, Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) stands alone among Maine natives on this list — a flat-topped cluster of vivid orange flowers on a compact plant, blooming in mid-summer in the driest, sandiest soil you have.
Pink and Red Wildflowers
Pink covers a lot of ground in this group. Wild Bleeding Heart (Dicentra eximia) produces nodding, heart-shaped pink flowers over ferny blue-green foliage in shaded spots from late spring through summer. Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum) has flatter, five-petaled pink-lavender flowers in part shade during May and June, while Creeping Phlox (Phlox subulata) covers sunny slopes and ledges in a low mat of pink spring bloom. Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) and Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) both bloom in dusty pink-mauve clusters in summer — check the habitat to tell them apart, since Swamp Milkweed wants consistently wet soil and Common Milkweed prefers drier, sunnier, well-drained ground. Obedient Plant (Physostegia virginiana) produces tall pink spikes in late summer with an odd party trick: push a flower to one side and it stays put, hence the name.
For true red, look to Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis), with tall spikes of brilliant red tubular flowers in wet soil in late summer, and Scarlet Beebalm (Monarda didyma), whose shaggy, firework-shaped red flower heads bloom in July. Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) is unmistakable earlier in the season, with nodding red-and-yellow flowers in May on a plant that often roots into rocky ledges where soil is thin.
Purple and Blue Wildflowers
This is the largest color group among Maine natives:
- New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) — the classic late-season purple wildflower, blooming into October with dozens of narrow rays around a yellow center
- Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) — a softer lavender version of beebalm's shaggy flower shape, blooming in mid-summer
- Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) — dense blue-purple spikes with licorice-scented foliage
- Dense Blazing Star (Liatris spicata) — a rich magenta-purple spike that blooms from the top down, unlike most spiked flowers
- Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) — drooping pink-purple petals around a coarse, bristly orange-brown cone
- Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) — dense spikes of true blue in wet soil, mid-to-late summer
- Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata) — slender, candelabra-branched spikes of blue-purple, also in wet soil
- Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) — true sky-blue bells opening from pink buds, April and May
- Woodland Phlox (Phlox divaricata) — flatter, five-petaled, fragrant blue-lavender flowers around the same time as bluebells
- Wild Lupine (Lupinus perennis) — tall spikes of blue-purple pea-like flowers in late spring, usually in dry, sandy sites
Full growing details for all ten of these, including light and soil preferences for the bed you're planning, are in our Maine native plant guide.
Using Bloom Time and Habitat to Confirm an ID
Once you've narrowed a flower down by color, bloom time and habitat are usually enough to settle the identification. A blue flower in April is almost certainly Virginia Bluebells or Woodland Phlox, since nearly everything else in the blue-purple group waits until summer or fall. A pink-mauve cluster in a soggy ditch is Swamp Milkweed; the same color on a dry roadside is Common Milkweed. A red tubular flower on a soft, upright stem is Cardinal Flower; that same red-orange color on a woody, climbing vine points to a different plant entirely — Trumpet Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), which hummingbirds visit just as readily.
Speaking of hummingbirds, color is also a decent shortcut to figuring out what's attracting them to your yard in the first place. Red and orange tubular flowers — Cardinal Flower, Scarlet Beebalm, Wild Columbine — are consistently the ones hummingbirds work first. If you're trying to attract more of them, or you're just curious what else is passing through, our guide to Maine's birds is a good next stop.