Natives by ZIP

Native plants recorded in your state and county

Native plants · Iowa

Native plants of Iowa County

55 plant species are recorded as native to Iowa in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Iowa County by USDA PLANTS. 25 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Iowa County, Iowa

PLANTS records only 25 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Iowa list is a useful second check.

Native species
55 Typical Iowa county: 44 (median of 99 counties)
Garden-ready natives
25 Typical Iowa county: 24
Share by type (all 55 native species)
Percent of the 55 native species in each growth type
Tree 7% (4)
Wildflower (forb) 44% (24)
Grass or grass-like 29% (16)
Vine 2% (1)
Fern 18% (10)

Wildflowers make up the largest share of the native list (44%), followed by grasses and grass-like plants (29%).

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

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

Garden-ready natives 25

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

Garden-ready native plants of Iowa County, Iowa
PlantType HeightLight Water useHardy to
big bluestem Andropogon gerardii Grass or grass-like 6 ft Sun Low Zone 2b
black oak Quercus velutina Tree 80 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 4a
blackeyed Susan Rudbeckia hirta Wildflower (forb) 1 ft Sun Medium Zone 5a
bulbous bittercress Cardamine bulbosa Wildflower (forb) 1.4 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 4a
bur oak Quercus macrocarpa Tree 100 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 3b
Canada germander Teucrium canadense Wildflower (forb) 3.3 ft Sun–part shade High 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
Gray's sedge Carex grayi Grass or grass-like 3 ft Shade-tolerant High Zone 4a
Indianhemp Apocynum cannabinum Wildflower (forb) 3.3 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 3a
nodding beggartick Bidens cernua Wildflower (forb) 3.2 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 12a
nodding fescue Festuca subverticillata Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 3a
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
pale purple coneflower Echinacea pallida Wildflower (forb) 1.2 ft Sun Medium Zone 4a
Philadelphia fleabane Erigeron philadelphicus Wildflower (forb) 2.8 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 4b
pinnate prairie coneflower Ratibida pinnata Wildflower (forb) 4 ft Sun Medium Zone 3b
porcupinegrass Hesperostipa spartea Grass or grass-like 4 ft Sun 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
redosier dogwood Cornus sericea Tree 12 ft Sun High Zone 3b
smooth horsetail Equisetum laevigatum Fern 5 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
sweet woodreed Cinna arundinacea Grass or grass-like 4.9 ft Shade-tolerant Low Zone 4a
western wheatgrass Pascopyrum smithii Grass or grass-like 2 ft Sun Medium Zone 3a
winter bentgrass Agrostis hyemalis Grass or grass-like 3.5 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 4a

Other native species recorded here 30

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.

  • biannual lettuce Lactuca ludoviciana
  • big devils beggartick Bidens vulgata
  • bigbract verbena Verbena bracteata
  • blackseed ricegrass Patis racemosa
  • bluejacket Tradescantia ohiensis
  • bluntlobe cliff fern Woodsia obtusa
  • Christmas fern Polystichum acrostichoides
  • churchmouse threeawn Aristida dichotoma
  • compassplant Silphium laciniatum
  • cutleaf grapefern Botrychium dissectum
  • earlyleaf brome Bromus latiglumis
  • eastern marsh fern Thelypteris palustris
  • fall witchgrass Digitaria cognata
  • hairy woodland brome Bromus pubescens
  • hedge false bindweed Calystegia sepium
  • hoary verbena Verbena stricta
  • meadow garlic Allium canadense
  • prairie groundsel Packera plattensis
  • prairie milkweed Asclepias sullivantii
  • prairie threeawn Aristida oligantha
  • purple milkweed Asclepias purpurascens
  • sensitive fern Onoclea sensibilis
  • sixweeks fescue Vulpia octoflora
  • spinulose woodfern Dryopteris carthusiana
  • swamp verbena Verbena hastata
  • sweet coneflower Rudbeckia subtomentosa
  • threeflower melicgrass Melica nitens
  • white rattlesnakeroot Prenanthes alba
  • whorled milkweed Asclepias verticillata
  • woolly sedge Carex pellita

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, Iowa County and Iowa
MeasureIowa CountyTypical countyStatewide
Native species 55 44 1,374
Garden-ready natives 25 24 496
Tree 4 — 110
Shrub 0 — 72
Wildflower (forb) 24 — 779
Grass or grass-like 16 — 298
Vine 1 — 55
Fern 10 — 60

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Iowa 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
Iowa County (county FIPS 19095), Iowa. 55 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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