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Native plants · Iowa

Native plants of Cerro Gordo County

43 plant species are recorded as native to Iowa in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Cerro Gordo County by USDA PLANTS. 24 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness. 1 more species is listed as both native and introduced and kept in a separate section.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Cerro Gordo County, Iowa

PLANTS records only 24 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Iowa list is a useful second check.

Native species
43 Typical Iowa county: 44 (median of 99 counties)
Garden-ready natives
24 Typical Iowa county: 24
Share by type (all 43 native species)
Percent of the 43 native species in each growth type
Tree 5% (2)
Wildflower (forb) 37% (16)
Grass or grass-like 40% (17)
Vine 2% (1)
Fern 16% (7)

Grasses and grass-like plants make up the largest share of the native list (40%), followed by wildflowers (37%).

Recorded native ranges can include long-established populations that spread from gardens; check your state’s native plant society list for local guidance. How native status is decided.

ZIP codes mainly in this county fall in USDA hardiness zone 5a (2023 map).

The native plant list

Cold hardiness is estimated from each plant’s PLANTS minimum temperature. How we estimate it.

Garden-ready natives 24

Native species with PLANTS growing records (height, light, moisture, minimum temperature). “—” means PLANTS has no value.

Garden-ready native plants of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
PlantType HeightLight Water useHardy to
annual wildrice Zizania aquatica Grass or grass-like 9.8 ft Sun High Zone 10b
arctic brome Bromus kalmii Grass or grass-like 3 ft Shade-tolerant Low Zone 4a
big bluestem Andropogon gerardii Grass or grass-like 6 ft Sun Low Zone 2b
bluejoint Calamagrostis canadensis Grass or grass-like 4.9 ft Sun Medium Zone 4a
crested sedge Carex cristatella Grass or grass-like 3 ft Shade-tolerant High Zone 4a
devil's beggartick Bidens frondosa Wildflower (forb) 4 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 12a
field horsetail Equisetum arvense Fern 11 in Sun–part shade High Zone 3a
fringed brome Bromus ciliatus Grass or grass-like 4 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 7a
Indiangrass Sorghastrum nutans Grass or grass-like 6 ft Sun Medium Zone 3b
marsh bellflower Campanula aparinoides Wildflower (forb) 2 ft Sun High Zone 3b
marsh muhly Muhlenbergia racemosa Grass or grass-like 3 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3b
Mexican muhly Muhlenbergia mexicana Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 4a
nodding beggartick Bidens cernua Wildflower (forb) 3.2 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 12a
northern bedstraw Galium boreale Wildflower (forb) 3 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 4a
northern maidenhair Adiantum pedatum Fern 1.3 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3b
northern red oak Quercus rubra Tree 81 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 3b
plains muhly Muhlenbergia cuspidata Grass or grass-like 1.4 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
porcupinegrass Hesperostipa spartea Grass or grass-like 4 ft Sun Medium Zone 3b
prairie sandreed Calamovilfa longifolia Grass or grass-like 4.5 ft Sun Medium Zone 3b
rattlesnake fern Botrychium virginianum Fern 1.4 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3b
silver maple Acer saccharinum Tree 90 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 2b
smooth horsetail Equisetum laevigatum Fern 5 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
water horsetail Equisetum fluviatile Fern 3 ft Sun High Zone 4a
western wheatgrass Pascopyrum smithii Grass or grass-like 2 ft Sun Medium Zone 3a

Other native species recorded here 19

PLANTS has no growing records for these, so light, moisture, height and zone filters cannot include them. Many are wild species seldom sold by nurseries.

  • American white waterlily Nymphaea odorata
  • big devils beggartick Bidens vulgata
  • blackseed ricegrass Patis racemosa
  • bog yellowcress Rorippa palustris
  • bulblet-bearing water hemlock Cicuta bulbifera
  • Clayton's sweetroot Osmorhiza claytonii
  • earlyleaf brome Bromus latiglumis
  • eastern bottlebrush grass Elymus hystrix
  • golden zizia Zizia aurea
  • hairy woodland brome Bromus pubescens
  • hairyjoint meadowparsnip Thaspium barbinode
  • hedge false bindweed Calystegia sepium
  • hemlock waterparsnip Sium suave
  • Maryland sanicle Sanicula marilandica
  • Nuttall's prairie parsley Polytaenia nuttallii
  • purple rattlesnakeroot Prenanthes racemosa
  • sensitive fern Onoclea sensibilis
  • smooth cliffbrake Pellaea glabella
  • western silver aster Symphyotrichum sericeum
Also listed as native and introduced here 1

PLANTS labels these species both native and introduced in this state: some forms are native and others were brought in from elsewhere. Most gardeners should choose plants from the main list.

Compared with Iowa

The typical county is the median of the 99 Iowa counties with PLANTS county records; the statewide figure counts every species native anywhere in the state. More species is not better or worse: counties differ in size, habitat and how thoroughly they have been surveyed.

Native species counts, Cerro Gordo County and Iowa
MeasureCerro Gordo CountyTypical countyStatewide
Native species 43 44 1,374
Garden-ready natives 24 24 496
Tree 2 — 110
Shrub 0 — 72
Wildflower (forb) 16 — 779
Grass or grass-like 17 — 298
Vine 1 — 55
Fern 7 — 60

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Cerro Gordo County.

Look up another ZIP

Matches your ZIP to the county it mostly lies in, then lists the plants recorded as native to your state (Kew’s World Checklist and USDA PLANTS) and recorded in that county by USDA PLANTS.

Source & data date

Source
USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: county distribution records, native status and plant characteristics. CC0 (public domain dedication, per the data.gov catalog record).
Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP): native or introduced status by state. CC BY 3.0.
USGS US-RIIS (ver. 2.0): species listed as introduced are excluded. CC0.
Citation
USDA, NRCS. 2026. The PLANTS Database (https://plants.usda.gov, 11/04/2026). National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC USA.
Govaerts R. (ed.) (2026). WCVP: World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Data file dated 2026-06-04, http://sftp.kew.org/pub/data-repositories/WCVP/ (retrieved 2026-11-04). Paper: Govaerts R. et al. (2021) The World Checklist of Vascular Plants, a continuously updated resource for exploring global plant diversity. Scientific Data 8, 215.
Data date
Retrieved from PLANTS on November 4, 2026; WCVP data file dated June 4, 2026.
Zones
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map (2023) ZIP table: PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu, accessed November 3, 2026. Plant zones on this site are our estimate, not the official map.
Scope
Cerro Gordo County (county FIPS 19033), Iowa. 43 native species from PLANTS county distribution records; garden-ready = species with a PLANTS characteristics record.
Method
A species is listed when it is recorded as native to the state in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in the county by USDA PLANTS. Species PLANTS labels both native and introduced are listed separately. Full method · All sources

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