Native plants · Iowa

Native plants of Dubuque County

31 plant species are recorded as native to Iowa in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Dubuque County by USDA PLANTS. 12 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Dubuque County, Iowa

PLANTS records only 12 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Iowa list is a useful second check.

Native species: 31 Typical Iowa county: 44 (median of 99 counties)
Garden-ready natives: 12 Typical Iowa county: 24
Share by type (all 31 native species): Percent of the 31 native species in each growth type

Wildflower (forb) 42% (13)
Grass or grass-like 19% (6)
Fern 39% (12)

Wildflowers make up the largest share of the native list (42%), followed by ferns (39%).

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

Garden-ready natives 12

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

Garden-ready native plants of Dubuque 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
common sneezeweed Helenium autumnale	Wildflower (forb)	4.9 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 3a
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
hairy white oldfield aster Symphyotrichum pilosum	Wildflower (forb)	3 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	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
yellow marsh marigold Caltha palustris	Wildflower (forb)	2 ft	Sun	High	Zone 3b

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.

bald spikerush Eleocharis erythropoda
bluntlobe cliff fern Woodsia obtusa
Drummond's aster Symphyotrichum drummondii
earlyleaf brome Bromus latiglumis
false melic Schizachne purpurascens
hairy woodland brome Bromus pubescens
longbract frog orchid Dactylorhiza viridis
marginal woodfern Dryopteris marginalis
meadow horsetail Equisetum pratense
prairie groundsel Packera plattensis
rue anemone Thalictrum thalictroides
sensitive fern Onoclea sensibilis
slender lipfern Cheilanthes feei
smooth cliffbrake Pellaea glabella
spinulose woodfern Dryopteris carthusiana
tall thoroughwort Eupatorium altissimum
walking fern Asplenium rhizophyllum
western silver aster Symphyotrichum sericeum
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, Dubuque County and Iowa
Measure	Dubuque County	Typical county	Statewide
Native species	31	44	1,374
Garden-ready natives	12	24	496
Tree	0	—	110
Shrub	0	—	72
Wildflower (forb)	13	—	779
Grass or grass-like	6	—	298
Vine	0	—	55
Fern	12	—	60

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Dubuque County.

Clayton County, IA 24 garden-ready
Delaware County, IA 8 garden-ready
Jackson County, IA 9 garden-ready
Jones County, IA 9 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: Dubuque County (county FIPS 19061), Iowa. 31 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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