Missouri Nature Guide: May 2026
May is the lush green crest of Missouri's spring — the last great wave of migrant songbirds, the glades and prairies bursting into color, and the warm-season garden going in everywhere. The woods are full of song, and the dolomite glades of the Ozarks reach their flowering peak.
What to look for this week
- Bald eagles gather below the Mississippi River dams at Clarksville and the Old Chain of Rocks, fishing the open water as northern lakes freeze.
- Order seeds early before popular tomato and pepper varieties sell out, and prune dormant fruit trees on mild days.
- The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks around January 3 in a short, sharp burst; look toward the northeast after midnight from a dark Ozark sky.
- The bare bottomland sycamores glow with their white, peeling upper bark against the gray winter woods.
Birds This Month
May is the climax of spring migration and the other great birding month in Missouri. The last and most colorful warblers pour through in the first half of the month — Blackburnian, magnolia, chestnut-sided, bay-breasted, and Cape May warblers stack up in the river-bottom canopies on good migration days, joined by rose-breasted grosbeaks, scarlet tanagers, and Baltimore and orchard orioles.
By mid-May the breeding birds are fully settled and singing. Indigo buntings blaze blue from every brushy edge, eastern wood-pewees and Acadian flycatchers call in the Ozark woods, and summer tanagers and yellow-billed cuckoos arrive. In the Bootheel swamps and at Mingo NWR, the prothonotary warblers are on territory in glowing gold, alongside Mississippi kites overhead. At dusk, the eastern whip-poor-will and chuck-will's-widow call from the Ozark hills.
The grassland birds are nesting on the prairies — dickcissels, grasshopper sparrows, Henslow's sparrows, and bobolinks in the north, with eastern meadowlarks singing from every fencepost. Ruby-throated hummingbirds are now common at feeders and on the early bloom, and the chimney swifts chatter over every town.
This month's tip: the first ten days of May are prime for warblers — get to a river-bottom forest at dawn after a warm overnight south wind. By late May, shift your attention to the singing breeders and the spectacular prairie grassland birds at places like Prairie State Park and Dunn Ranch.
What's Blooming
May moves Missouri's wildflower show out of the shaded woods and into the open, and the Ozark dolomite glades steal the spotlight. These rocky, sun-baked openings burst into bloom — the large lemon-yellow flowers of the Missouri evening primrose open on the warm rock, Indian paintbrush glows orange-red, shooting star dangles its swept-back pink-and-white flowers, and fremont's leather flower and blue wild indigo add to the display.
On the prairies and roadsides, the season builds — pale purple coneflower, spiderwort, golden alexanders, wild hyacinth, and the first prairie phlox spread across the grasslands. In the woods, the late spring flowers carry on with fire pink, columbine nodding red-and-yellow on rocky bluffs, wild geranium, and the white plumes of false Solomon's seal. On the glades, watch too for the eastern collared lizard basking — a famous Ozark glade specialty among the flowers.
Where to see it: the great glade sites — Hughes Mountain, Victoria Glades, and the glades of Ha Ha Tonka and the St. Francois Mountains — are at their colorful peak in May. Go on a warm, sunny day, when the primroses are open and the collared lizards are out. The prairies of the west, like Prairie State Park, are greening fast and beginning their long summer bloom.
Garden This Month
May is the big planting month in the Missouri garden. With the last frost behind nearly the whole state, the warm-season crops all go in now — set out tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and basil transplants, and direct-sow the heat-lovers: beans, squash, cucumbers, sweet corn, melons, okra, and sweet potato slips. Plant tomatoes deep, burying part of the stem to encourage strong roots, and cage or stake them at planting time before they sprawl.
The cool-season crops are racing the heat now. Harvest lettuce, spinach, radishes, and peas promptly, because they bolt and turn bitter as soon as the warm days arrive. As beds empty, replant them with summer crops or a quick succession of beans. This is the month to mulch everything — a layer of straw or shredded leaves holds soil moisture, moderates the coming summer heat, and smothers weeds, all of which pay off enormously through a hot Missouri July. Stay ahead of weeds while they are small, and set up your watering plan before the dry stretches set in.
Zone 5b (northern Missouri): the warm-season garden goes in now that the last frost (late April to early May) has passed. Set out tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and basil, and direct-sow beans, squash, cucumbers, corn, and melons into the warming soil. Keep the cool-season crops harvested and shaded as the heat builds, and watch for late cold snaps in the first week.
Zone 6a (central Missouri): full planting month. Set out all warm-season transplants and direct-sow beans, corn, squash, cucumbers, melons, and okra. Succession-sow beans and keep harvesting lettuce and spinach before they bolt in the heat. Mulch the beds now to hold moisture and suppress weeds heading into summer.
Zone 6b (southern Ozarks and St. Louis area): warm-season crops are well established; keep planting heat-lovers like okra, southern peas, sweet potatoes, and melons. The cool-season crops are finishing fast in the heat, so harvest the last lettuce and spinach and replace those beds with summer crops. Mulch and set up consistent watering for the dry months ahead.
What's at the Farmers Market
May is when Missouri markets hit their spring stride. The headline crop is strawberries, which come into full local season this month — choose berries that are fully and evenly red, since strawberries do not ripen further after picking, and pass over any with white shoulders or soft spots. Asparagus continues strong, and the spring greens are abundant: lettuces, spinach, arugula, Swiss chard, and spring mix.
The variety widens fast now. Look for radishes, green onions, green garlic, rhubarb, the first sugar snap and snow peas, baby turnips, kale, and broccoli. Growers are also selling vegetable and flower seedlings for home gardens, and the tables fill with cut flowers, local honey, and eggs as the season opens up.
For selection and storage: refrigerate strawberries unwashed and use them within a couple of days, washing only just before eating. Stand asparagus upright in a jar with water in the refrigerator, and store tender greens dry in the crisper. Keep peas cold and crisp, trim the tops from radishes and turnips for longer storage, and keep rhubarb stalks refrigerated and unwashed until use.
Night Sky This Month
May nights are mild and the spring sky is fully established. Leo the Lion is settling toward the west, while the great kite-shape of Boötes with brilliant orange Arcturus stands high in the south, and the bright blue-white Spica shines in Virgo below it. To the east, the keystone of Hercules climbs, carrying the magnificent Hercules Globular Cluster (M13), a glorious ball of stars in binoculars and telescopes.
By late evening the summer is announced as the bright star Vega in Lyra clears the northeastern horizon, the first corner of the coming Summer Triangle. There is no major meteor shower from a dark Missouri sky this month (the Eta Aquariids favor more southern latitudes and the predawn hours). May is a fine galaxy-hunting month, with the Virgo Cluster overhead and the famous Whirlpool Galaxy near the Big Dipper's handle well placed for telescopes.
The dark Ozark skies remain Missouri's best for stargazing, far from the glow of the cities. May's milder, longer nights make for comfortable viewing, though the shorter darkness means a later start. Because the planets and their positions shift each year, check the printable Missouri night-sky guide for this year's specific planet visibility and the best moonless viewing windows from your latitude.
Butterflies & Pollinators
May is a rich butterfly month across Missouri, with the spring broods at full strength and the summer species beginning to emerge. The big swallowtails are conspicuous now — the eastern tiger swallowtail sails along woodland edges and gardens, black swallowtails and spicebush swallowtails patrol the woods, the bluish pipevine swallowtail floats through, and the elegant zebra swallowtail works the pawpaw thickets in the bottomlands.
The first monarchs of the locally hatched generation begin to appear from eggs laid in April, and the meadows fill with smaller species — pearl crescents, eastern tailed-blues, summer azures, cabbage whites, orange and clouded sulphurs, and the first silver-spotted skippers. On the Ozark glades, watch for hairstreaks and the distinctive red admiral and American lady nectaring among the wildflowers.
To support them now: the long bloom of the spring glade and prairie flowers — coneflower, phlox, golden alexanders, and the first milkweeds — feeds this surge of butterflies, and the golden alexanders and parsley-family plants host the black swallowtail caterpillars. Keep some unmowed, flowering edges in the garden, and let the milkweed grow for the building monarch population.
Trees This Month
May completes the leafing-out of the Missouri forest, and the canopy is now in full, deep green. The late-blooming trees take their turn — the black locust hangs fragrant white pea-flower clusters that perfume the roadsides, the native fringe tree drips its airy white tassels, and the tulip tree (yellow poplar) opens its large orange-and-green tulip-shaped flowers high in the canopy of the richer woods.
The oaks and hickories finish leafing and drop their spent catkins, dusting everything with pollen, while the black cherry and the native American basswood (linden) set their flower buds for early summer. In the bottomlands, the sycamores and cottonwoods are fully leafed, and the cottonwoods begin releasing their drifting cottony seeds. The native shortleaf pine finishes its spring candle growth on the Ozark ridges. By late May the woods are dense and shaded, and the year's tree-flower show winds down as the foliage takes over.
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Same month elsewhere: May in Montana · May in Nebraska · May in Nevada