Native plants · Iowa

Native plants of Clinton County

26 plant species are recorded as native to Iowa in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Clinton County by USDA PLANTS. 13 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Clinton County, Iowa

PLANTS records only 13 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Iowa list is a useful second check.

Native species: 26 Typical Iowa county: 44 (median of 99 counties)
Garden-ready natives: 13 Typical Iowa county: 24
Share by type (all 26 native species): Percent of the 26 native species in each growth type

Wildflower (forb) 31% (8)
Grass or grass-like 23% (6)
Fern 46% (12)

Ferns make up the largest share of the native list (46%), followed by wildflowers (31%).

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 zones 5a to 5b (2023 map).

The native plant list

Garden-ready natives 13

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

Garden-ready native plants of Clinton County, Iowa
Plant	Type	Height	Light	Water use	Hardy to
arctic brome Bromus kalmii	Grass or grass-like	3 ft	Shade-tolerant	Low	Zone 4a
Canadian horseweed Conyza canadensis	Wildflower (forb)	5 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 12b
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
fox sedge Carex vulpinoidea	Grass or grass-like	3.2 ft	Sun–part shade	Medium	Zone 3b
giant goldenrod Solidago gigantea	Wildflower (forb)	8.2 ft	Sun–part shade	Medium	Zone 4a
Gray's sedge Carex grayi	Grass or grass-like	3 ft	Shade-tolerant	High	Zone 4a
nodding beggartick Bidens cernua	Wildflower (forb)	3.2 ft	Sun–part shade	High	Zone 12a
northern maidenhair Adiantum pedatum	Fern	1.3 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 3b
purplestem beggarticks Bidens connata	Wildflower (forb)	3.2 ft	Sun–part shade	High	Zone 12a
rattlesnake fern Botrychium virginianum	Fern	1.4 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 3b
smooth horsetail Equisetum laevigatum	Fern	5 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 3b
water horsetail Equisetum fluviatile	Fern	3 ft	Sun	High	Zone 4a

Other native species recorded here 13

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.

big devils beggartick Bidens vulgata
blackfoot quillwort Isoetes melanopoda
churchmouse threeawn Aristida dichotoma
eastern marsh fern Thelypteris palustris
fall witchgrass Digitaria cognata
sensitive fern Onoclea sensibilis
sixweeks fescue Vulpia octoflora
slender lipfern Cheilanthes feei
smooth cliffbrake Pellaea glabella
spinulose woodfern Dryopteris carthusiana
Virginia tephrosia Tephrosia virginiana
walking fern Asplenium rhizophyllum
western silver aster Symphyotrichum sericeum

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, Clinton County and Iowa
Measure	Clinton County	Typical county	Statewide
Native species	26	44	1,374
Garden-ready natives	13	24	496
Tree	0	—	110
Shrub	0	—	72
Wildflower (forb)	8	—	779
Grass or grass-like	6	—	298
Vine	0	—	55
Fern	12	—	60

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Clinton County.

Cedar County, IA 6 garden-ready
Jackson County, IA 9 garden-ready
Jones County, IA 9 garden-ready
Scott County, IA 11 garden-ready

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: Clinton County (county FIPS 19045), Iowa. 26 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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