Home > Landscaping > Native Plants for Western Washington Gardens and Restoration Projects
Native Plants with White Flowers
 | Acer circinatum Vine Maple Tall, erect, multi-trunked shrub or small tree with sprawling branches. Height: 13-26 feet (4-8 meters) Flowers grow in small loose clusters at the end of shoots. Flower sepals are purple and red, hairy and spreading; petals are creamy white with purple/red highlights. Flower size: 6-9 mm across. |
 | Achillea millefolium Yarrow Aromatic herb with delicate fern-like leaves and flat-topped clusters of white flowers. Height: 4 inches to 3 feet (10-100 cm). Flowers are arranged in flat-topped clusters 5-10 cm (2-4 in) across at stem tips. What appear to be single flowers within this cluster are actually tight heads of several tiny flowers, each head with 3-5 white ray flowers surrounding several yellow disk flowers; both ray and disk flowers produce seeds. The ray flowers are usually white but can also be pink or reddish. Flowers bloom later at higher elevations. |
 | Achlys triphylla Vanilla Leaf Grows low to the ground, spreading by rhizomes to form dense ground cover in shady areas. Height: To 12 inches (30 cm) tall. The flowers which lack sepals and petals have 8-20 long white stamens that form a showy white spike that is positioned above the center point of the leaves; spike size: 2-7 cm (.8-2.75 in) long by 1 cm thick. |
 | Alisma plantago-aquatica Broadleaf Water-Plantain A terminal cluster of small white flowers sits above a tall leafless stem. It grows in marshy or semi-aquatic environments. Height: up to 48 inches (120 cm). Whorls of small white (rarely pink) flowers are arranged in an open, branched, terminal cluster that sticks up well beyond the leaves. Flowers only open in the afternoon and evening. Flower size: 5 mm long. |
 | Amelanchier alnifolia Serviceberry, Saskatoon Medium-sized shrub producing fragrant white flowers in late spring. Height: Up to 15 feet (4.5 meters). Clusters of large white flowers range from drooping to erect. Each flower has 5 petals with 15 to 20 stamens each; size: 1-2.5 cm across. |
 | Anaphalis margaritacea Pearly Everlasting Clump forming, perennial herb with small withering basal leaves and papery white flower clusters. Height: Up to 40 inches (100 cm). Flowers are very small with yellowish disk flowers surrounded by dry pearly white involucral bracts with dark triangular bases. The flowers which can be male or female appear in late summer. Flowers are in desne flat-topped clusters 15 cm (6 in) across. |
 | Arbutus menziesii Madrone An attractive broadleaf evergreen with a twisting reddish trunk and irregular branches with an overall rounded outline. Height: Up to 100 feet (30 meters). The small pinkish-white, bell-shaped flowers are arranged in large drooping clusters and are fragrant. Each flower has 10 anthers, a superior ovary and 5 sepals fused at the base. Flower size ranges from 6-7 mm long. |
 | Aruncus dioicus Goat's Beard Tall perennial herb topped with large feathery clusters of white flowers, grows from rhizomes and has multiple stems. Height: Can grow up to 6.5 feet (2 meters) tall. Male and female flowers occur on separate plants. Flowers are densely packed in elongated terminal feathery clusters. Flower branchlets are spike-like. Each saucer-shaped flower is white to cream with petals to about 1 mm long. |
 | Boykinia occidentalis Slender Boykinia A slender herb with open panicles of small white flowers. Height: Up to 24 inches (60 cm). Numerous flowers in a much-branched inflorescence. Each flower is densely glandular and reddish, with five white, oblong to oval petals. |
 | Brodiaea hyacinthina Fool's Onion, White Brodiaea Onion-like plant from an underground corm, with large clusters of white flowers at tip of stems. Height: 10-30 inches (25-70 cm). In large umbel at top of a slender stalk 25-70 cm (10-28 in) tall and surpassing leaves. 3-5 bracts below umbel are small and papery. Each braodly bell-shaped flower is white to light blue, with blue or green veins; size: 1-1.5 cm long. |
 | Caltha biflora Marsh Marigold Perennial herb with large white flowers held above broadly rounded leaves; grows in wet subalpine meadows. Height: 16 inches (40 cm). 1-2 flowers emerging from a stem with one leaf. Flowers lack true petals but have 5-7 bright white sepals and many stamens. Fize: 1.5-4 cm (.6-1.5 in) across. |
 | Ceanothus velutinus Snowbrush A tall shrub with glossy leaves and clusters of white flowers. Height: Up to 10 feet (3 meters). Flowers are arranged in pyramidal clusters 5-12 cm long along the length of side branches. EAch flower is tiny, white. |
 | Cerastium arvense Field Chickweed Flower color: white. |
 | Claytonia perfoliata Miner's Lettuce Low-growing, mat-like herbaceous annual with succulent round leaves. Height: 12 inches (30 cm). Small white to pinkish flowers with 2 sepals and 5 petals, in small clusters just above the stem leaves. Size: 3-7 mm long. |
 | Claytonia sibirica Siberian Spring Beauty Low-growing delicate herb. Height: Up to 16 inches (40 cm). Flowers are in 1 to several many-flowered raceme clusters jsut above the stem leaves. Each flower has 2 sepals and 5 notched-tipped white to pink petals 6-12 mm long. The flowers are pink when growing in shade, but are more white when growing in sun. |
 | Cornus nuttallii Western Flowering Dogwood Multi-branched, irregular trees with attractive large white "flowers". Height: Up to 65 feet (20 meters) tall. Small, inconspicuous cluster of greenish-white flowers surrounded by 4-6 large, showy white bracts 2-7 cm long that appear to form a single flower. Sometimes will bloom again in September. |
 | Cornus stolonifera Red-osier Dogwood Spreading, thicket-forming shrub with bright red stems. Height: Up to 20 feet (6 meters). The tiny flowers have 4 petals and 4 stamens; numerous in dense, flat-topped terminal clusters; primary color: white to greenish; size: 2-4 mm long. |
 | Cornus unalaschkensis Bunchberry Low, trailing, rhizomatous perennial with white flowers. Height: Up to 10 inches (25 cm). What looks like a single large flower is actually four white bracts with a small cluster of greenish-white flowers in the center. Each flower has 4 sepals, 4 stamens, 4 petals. May bloom twice (late spring and again in late summer). Size: 2.5 cm (1 in) across (including bracts). |
 | Crataegus douglasii black hawthorn large shrub or small tree with clusters of white flowers and dark purplish-black berries. Stinky odor; 5 petals, 5 styles, 10-20 stamens; flowers are in clusters borne terminally or in leaf axis; primary color: white; size: 1 cm across. |
 | Disporum hookeri Hooker's Fairybells Rhizomatous perennial with sparsely branched stems and irregularly curled leaves with hanging white flowers beneath the upper leaves. Height: Up to 3 feet (1 meters). Narrow, creamy-white, bell-shaped flowers; style usually hairy; 1-3 hanging from tip of branch; size: 1-2 cm long. |
 | Epilobium brachycarpum Tall Annual Willowherb Taprooted annual of dry, gravelly or disturbed sites. Height: 1-4 feet (30-120 cm) tall. Open panicles of flowers; primary color: pink or white; size: 0.25-0.5 in (3-12 mm). |
 | Eriophorum chamissonis Chamisso's Cotton-grass Extensive beds growing from spreading rhizomes or stolons with tufts of cotton-like seed heads. Height: 8-28 inches (20-70 cm). Solitary spikelet at tip of stem; no leafy involucral bracts. Spike subtended by 4-6 large, sterile, dark-brown scales. Obscured by cotton ball. |
 | Erythronium oregonum White Fawn Lily Showy white lily from segmented corm. Height: Flower stem up to 1 feet (30 cm) tall. Tepals (petals) white with yellow bases, bent back; anthers yellow. Flowers usually single terminal and nodding. |
 | Fragaria chiloensis Coastal Strawberry Spreads low across ground with runners. White flowers and small red strawberries. Height: Up to 10 inches (25 cm). 5-7 white petals; each plant has 5-9 flowers on leafless flowering stalks to 30 cm (12 in) tall; flower size: 3.5 cm (1.5 in) across. |
 | Fragaria vesca Woodland strawberry A wild strawberry with thin leaves, low, short runners, white flowers, and small red strawberries. Height: Up to 10 inches (25 cm). 5-7 petals; each plant has 5-9 flowers on leafless flowering stalks to 30 cm tall; primary color: white-pink; size: 3.5 cm (1.5 in) across. |
 | Fragaria virginiana Wild strawberry Low growing wild strawberry with runners, white flowers, and small red strawberries. Height: Up to 10 inches (25 cm). 5-7 white petals and a yellow center, leafless flowering stalk; size: 1.5 cm (.6 in) across. |
 | Galium aparine Cleavers, Bedstraw Flower color: white. |
 | Galium trifidum Small Bedstraw Sprawling perennial with numerous stems from slender rhizomes. Height: up to 28 inches (70 cm). Small whitish flowers in several to many clusters of 1-3 on long, narrow stalks from branch tips and axils of leaf whorls; size: 1-3 mm wide. |
 | Gaultheria shallon Salal Creeping to erect shrub with hairy branching stems and dark leathery leaves. Height: Up to 16 feet (5 meters) in exceptional cases but typically 3-7 feet (1-2 m) tall. Occur in racemes of 5-15 urn-shaped flowers, all oriented in same direction; primary color: white-pinkish; size: 7-10 mm long. |
 | Goodyera oblongifolia Rattlesnake Plantain Evergreen orchid from short rhizomes with an unusual mottled leaf pattern. Height: Up to 1.5 feet (45 cm). Petals and 1 of the sepals form a hood over the lip; numerous in long, dense, downy, terminal spike with most flowers oriented to one side; primary color: dull-white to greenish; size: to 1 cm. Does not bloom every year. |
 | Heuchera micrantha Small-flowered Alumroot Grows from rhizomes with one to many flower stems that are reddish and covered with fine hairs and topped with delicate panicles of tiny white flowers. Height: Up to 2 feet (60 cm). White to cream colored, small, numerous, on thin stalks in large open groups; 5 stamens. |
 | Holodiscus discolor Oceanspray Multi-stemmed upright shrub with ridged young stems and arching older stems with peeling bark. White flowers. Height: Up to 13 feet (4 meters). Flowers are in dense terminal pyramidal cluster, 10-17 cm long; 5 white petals, 20 stamens, mostly 5 pistils, ovary is two-ovuled; flower clusters turn brown and remain on plants over winter; primary color: white to cream; size: 5 mm across. |
 | Hydrophyllum fendleri Fendler's Waterleaf Flower color: white. |
 | Hydrophyllum tenuipes Pacific Waterleaf Single leafy, hairy stem grows from rhizomes and fleshy fibrous roots; with small clusters of greenish-white flowers. Height: Up to 32 inches (80 cm). Numerous in terminal compact clusters on stalks from upper leaf axils; primary color: greenish-white to lavender; size: 5-7 mm long; stamens and pistils are sticking out; sepals are bristly on margins; shape: bell-shaped. |
 | Ledum groenlandicum Labrador Tea Evergreen, branching shrub with rusty-hairy leaf undersides and white flowers. Height: Up to 5 feet (1.5 meters). White, with protruding stamens, small; numerous, in short umbrella-like clusters; shape: saucer. |
 | Lithophragma parviflorum Small-flowered Woodland Star Delicate herb from slender rhizomes with numerous small bulblets; white star-shaped flowers. Height: 2-16 inches (10-40 cm). 5 to 11 flowers in a compact to elongated cluster at top of stem; 5 petals, 3-fingered. Plants along the coast of Washington and Oregon appear to have distinctly pinkish- to purplish-tinged stems and flowers; size: 1 cm wide. |
 | Lotus purshiana Spanish-clover Flower color: white,pink. |
 | Luetkea pectinata Partridgefoot Low-growing ground cover with spikes of small white flowers. Height: Up to 6 inches (3 cm) tall. Numerous small white flowes in dense spikes held above the leaves. Each flower has 5 white petals, 20 stamens, and 5 pistils. |
 | Maianthemum dilatatum False Lily-of-the-Valley Quickly spreading ground cover with attractive glossy green leaves. Height: Up to 12 inches (30 cm) tall. The small delicate white flowers are grouped in short spikes held just above the leaves. |
 | Maianthemum racemosum False Solomon's Seal Flower color: white. |
 | Maianthemum stellatum Starflowered False Solomon's Seal Flower color: white. |
 | Malus fusca Pacific Crabapple Small tree, slender in form, appears thorny; bushy in the open. Height: 16.5-40 feet (5-12 meters). fragrant white to pink apple blossoms in small clusters; pretty in bloom, but small; size: 9-14 mm long; shape: petals oblong-oval to obovate. |
 | Menyanthes trifoliata Buckbean White, curly-haired flowers and large trifoliate leaves decorate this patch-forming plant found in shallow water. Flower color: white. |
 | Oemleria cerasiformis Indian Plum, Osoberry Deciduous shrub producing clusters of white flowers in very early spring. One of the earliest plants to bloom. Height: 16.5 feet (5 meters). Male and female plants can be on same or separate plants (monoecious or dioecious). Flowers have 5 petals and 15 stamens in 3 distinct series. Flowers hang in 5-10 cm long cluster from leaf axils; primary color: white above and paler green and waxy beneath; size: 1 cm across; shape: bell-shaped. |
 | Oenanthe sarmentosa Pacific Water Parsley Semi-aquatic, often reclining or scrambling herb, with stem tips ascending or curled and small flat-topped clusters of white flowers. Height: Up to 40 inches (1 meter). Tiny flowers in 5-20 compact clusters on 1-3 cm long stalks subtended by 0-few, narrow, leafy bracts; primary color: white, sometimes pink tinged; size: small; shape: compound umbels. |
 | Oplopanax horridus Devil's Club An erect to sprawling shrub with thick, spiny, crooked stems and very large leaves. Height: Up to 10 feet (3 meters). Arranged in pyramidal clusters to 20 cm long; primary color: greenish-white; flower size: 5-6 mm. |
 | Oxalis oregana Wood Sorrel A delicate herb with clover-like leaves and white to pink flowers, forming carpets in forested areas. Flower color: white,pink. |
 | Petasites palmatus Palmate Coltsfoot Many-stemmed perennial with umbrella-like leaves from creeping rhizomes. Height: Up to 30 inches (80 cm). Ray flowers creamy white; disk flowers whitish to pinkish; involucres 7-16 mm high, the bracts lance-shaped, with hairs at the base; heads several to many, on glandular and often white-woolly stalks. |
 | Philadelphus lewisii Mock Orange Erect, loosely branched shrub with large fragrant white flowers. Height: Up to 10 feet (3 meters). 4 petals; numerous stamens; 3-15 in clusters at the end of lateral branches; size: 2-3 across. |
 | Phlox diffusa Spreading Phlox Mat forming perennial with showy white to pink flowers. Height: Up to 4 inches (10 cm). Showy; 5 sepals fused into whitened, long-hairy tube with sharp lobes; petals fused into tube 9-17 mm long, spreading flat into 5-9 mm long lobes, solitary and stalkless at ends of stems and branches; primary color: pink to lavender or whitish; size: 1.3 cm across. |
 | Physocarpus capitatus Pacific Ninebark Erect to spreading shrub up to 4 meters tall with clusters of white flowers. Height: Up to 13 feet (4 meters). White, small, 5 petals, about 30 pink stamens; several to many in terminal, rounded clusters; size: 4 mm long. |
 | Platanthera dilatata White Rein-Orchid, Bog Candle Perennial orchid with spikes of white flowers from tuber-like roots. Height: Up to 28 inches (70 cm). White to greenish tinge, waxy, small but very fragrant, spur slender, cylindrical, curved longer than lip, 5-30 flowers in loose to densely packed terminal spikes. |
 | Prunus emarginata var. mollis Bitter Cherry Shrub or small tree with white flowers and small red cherries. Height: Up to 50 feet (15 meters). White or slightly pinkish, 1-1.5 cm across, saucer-shaped; 5-10 in a rounded or flat-topped cluster. Flowers appear when leaves are about half grown. |
 | Rubus parviflorus Thimbleberry Unarmed spreading shrub with large white flowers. Usually forms dense thickets. Height: Up to 10 feet (3 meters). Petals white, crinkled like tissue paper, 2-3 cm long; several (3-11) in long stemmed terminal cluster. |
 | Rubus ursinus Trailing Blackberry Trailing prickly vine producing small blackberries in late summer. Height: 20 inches (50 cm). Flowers grow in flat topped clusters from the leaf axils; male and female flowers are on different plants; primary color: white or pale pink; size: 4 cm. |
 | Sagittaria latifolia Wapato, Arrowhead Tall semi-aquatic perennial of marshes or lake margins, with large arrowhead shaped leaves and small white flowers. Height: 3 feet (90 cm). Sexes often on different flowers, 3 white petals 1-2 cm long and 3 greenish sepals, numerous ovaries and stamens, flowers in 2-8 whorls. |
 | Sambucus racemosa Red Elderberry Shrub to small tree with clusters of small white flowers and red berries. Height: 20 feet (6 meters). Pyramidal clusters of small creamy-white flowers with an unpleasant odor. |
 | Sium suave Water-parsnip Flower color: white. |
 | Sorbus sitchensis Sitka-Mountain Ash Flower color: white. |
 | Streptopus amplexifolius Clasping Twisted Stalk Perennial herb with a branched zigzagging stem and dangling white flowers. Height: 3 feet (1 meter). Flowers hang on thin, twisted stalks; 1-2 from each leaf axil along stem; primary color: greenish-white; size: 1-2 cm; shape: bell shaped with flaring tips. |
 | Tellima grandiflora Fringecup Flower color: white,pink. |
 | Tiarella trifoliata Foamflower Herb with erect or ascending stems and spikes of dainty white flowers. Height: 2 feet (60 cm). Tiny and delicate white flowers at the end of short wire-like stalks, several to many in elongate clusters, 5 petals and 10 stamens; size: 2 mm; shape: stars, narrowly tube shaped. |
 | Trillium ovatum Western Trillium Short stout stems topped with a whorl of three leaves and a single large white flower. Height: 12-18 inches (30-45 cm). The solitary flower has three white petals 2.5-5 cm long by 1.8-4.5 cm wide, with 6 fuzzy yellow stamens and three green sepals beneath. The petals turn pink to purple with age. |
 | Vancouveria hexandra Inside-out Flower Rhizomatous perennial with small white flowers and delicate leaves. Height: 16 inches (40 cm). 6 petals and 6 sepals bent backwards and flaring; stamens finely purplish-glandular-hairy; 10-30 flowers on slender stalks in open panicles; size: 2 cm; shape: shooting star. |
 | Viburnum edule High Bush Cranberry Shrub with bright red berries and brilliant fall foliage. Height: 3-9 feet (1-3 meters) tall. Clusters of small white flowers. |
 | Xerophyllum tenax Beargrass Forms a tall grass-like clump of tough leaves topped by a large dense cluster of white flowers. Height: 3-5 feet (1-1.5 meters). Tiny, white, fragrant flowers on long stalks in a showy pyramidal terminal cluster on a long stem; 6 petal-like sepals and stamens; flowers irregularly every few years; stem dies after fruiting. |
The landscaping and restoration information provided on this page is taken from the Starflower Foundation Image Herbarium. All photographs © Starflower Foundation unless otherwise noted.