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Native plants · Iowa

Native plants of Hardin County

38 plant species are recorded as native to Iowa in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Hardin County by USDA PLANTS. 18 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Hardin County, Iowa

PLANTS records only 18 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Iowa list is a useful second check.

Native species
38 Typical Iowa county: 44 (median of 99 counties)
Garden-ready natives
18 Typical Iowa county: 24
Share by type (all 38 native species)
Percent of the 38 native species in each growth type
Wildflower (forb) 26% (10)
Grass or grass-like 47% (18)
Fern 26% (10)

Grasses and grass-like plants make up the largest share of the native list (47%), followed by wildflowers (26%).

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 18

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

Garden-ready native plants of Hardin 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
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
Mexican muhly Muhlenbergia mexicana Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 4a
nimblewill Muhlenbergia schreberi Grass or grass-like 3.2 ft Shade-tolerant Low 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
oval-leaf sedge Carex cephalophora Grass or grass-like 2.6 ft Sun–part shade Low Zone 4a
prairie blazing star Liatris pycnostachya Wildflower (forb) 3.5 ft Sun Medium Zone 4a
rattlesnake fern Botrychium virginianum Fern 1.4 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3b
rough bentgrass Agrostis scabra Grass or grass-like 2.5 ft Sun Medium Zone 3b
roughfruit amaranth Amaranthus tuberculatus Wildflower (forb) 6.6 ft Sun High Zone 4a
shortawn foxtail Alopecurus aequalis Grass or grass-like 2.5 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 3b
slender wheatgrass Elymus trachycaulus Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun Medium Zone 3b
smooth horsetail Equisetum laevigatum Fern 5 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
threelobe beggarticks Bidens tripartita Wildflower (forb) 3.5 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 12a

Other native species recorded here 20

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
  • bluntlobe cliff fern Woodsia obtusa
  • churchmouse threeawn Aristida dichotoma
  • Clayton's sweetroot Osmorhiza claytonii
  • earlyleaf brome Bromus latiglumis
  • eastern bottlebrush grass Elymus hystrix
  • hairy woodland brome Bromus pubescens
  • hemlock waterparsnip Sium suave
  • lace grass Eragrostis capillaris
  • longstyle sweetroot Osmorhiza longistylis
  • marginal woodfern Dryopteris marginalis
  • poverty oatgrass Danthonia spicata
  • sensitive fern Onoclea sensibilis
  • sixweeks fescue Vulpia octoflora
  • smooth cliffbrake Pellaea glabella
  • smooth forked nailwort Paronychia canadensis
  • spinulose woodfern Dryopteris carthusiana
  • threeflower melicgrass Melica nitens
  • 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, Hardin County and Iowa
MeasureHardin CountyTypical countyStatewide
Native species 38 44 1,374
Garden-ready natives 18 24 496
Tree 0 — 110
Shrub 0 — 72
Wildflower (forb) 10 — 779
Grass or grass-like 18 — 298
Vine 0 — 55
Fern 10 — 60

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Hardin 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
Hardin County (county FIPS 19083), Iowa. 38 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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