Native plants · Iowa

Native plants of Davis County

22 plant species are recorded as native to Iowa in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Davis County by USDA PLANTS. 8 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Davis County, Iowa

PLANTS records only 8 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Iowa list is a useful second check.

Native species: 22 Typical Iowa county: 44 (median of 99 counties)
Garden-ready natives: 8 Typical Iowa county: 24
Share by type (all 22 native species): Percent of the 22 native species in each growth type

Tree 5% (1)
Wildflower (forb) 36% (8)
Grass or grass-like 36% (8)
Vine 5% (1)
Fern 18% (4)

Wildflowers make up the largest share of the native list (36%), followed by grasses and grass-like plants (36%).

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 5b (2023 map).

The native plant list

Garden-ready natives 8

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

Garden-ready native plants of Davis County, Iowa
Plant	Type	Height	Light	Water use	Hardy to
black oak Quercus velutina	Tree	80 ft	Sun–part shade	Medium	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
gray goldenrod Solidago nemoralis	Wildflower (forb)	2 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 4a
northern maidenhair Adiantum pedatum	Fern	1.3 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 3b
rice cutgrass Leersia oryzoides	Grass or grass-like	4.9 ft	Sun	High	Zone 4a
smooth horsetail Equisetum laevigatum	Fern	5 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 3b
upland bentgrass Agrostis perennans	Grass or grass-like	3.5 ft	Sun–part shade	High	Zone 4a

Other native species recorded here 14

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.

amberique-bean Strophostyles helvola
churchmouse threeawn Aristida dichotoma
hairy woodland brome Bromus pubescens
meadow garlic Allium canadense
mullein foxglove Dasistoma macrophylla
poverty oatgrass Danthonia spicata
prairie threeawn Aristida oligantha
sensitive fern Onoclea sensibilis
slimspike threeawn Aristida longespica
thin paspalum Paspalum setaceum
violet lespedeza Lespedeza violacea
Virginia springbeauty Claytonia virginica
wholeleaf rosinweed Silphium integrifolium
yellow pimpernel Taenidia integerrima

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, Davis County and Iowa
Measure	Davis County	Typical county	Statewide
Native species	22	44	1,374
Garden-ready natives	8	24	496
Tree	1	—	110
Shrub	0	—	72
Wildflower (forb)	8	—	779
Grass or grass-like	8	—	298
Vine	1	—	55
Fern	4	—	60

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Davis County.

Appanoose County, IA 11 garden-ready
Van Buren County, IA 10 garden-ready
Wapello County, IA 6 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: Davis County (county FIPS 19051), Iowa. 22 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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