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Native plants · Iowa

Native plants of Johnson County

96 plant species are recorded as native to Iowa in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Johnson County by USDA PLANTS. 44 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Johnson County, Iowa

Native species
96 Typical Iowa county: 44 (median of 99 counties)
Garden-ready natives
44 Typical Iowa county: 24
Share by type (all 96 native species)
Percent of the 96 native species in each growth type
Tree 6% (6)
Wildflower (forb) 52% (50)
Grass or grass-like 26% (25)
Fern 16% (15)

Wildflowers make up the largest share of the native list (52%), followed by grasses and grass-like plants (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 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 44

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

Garden-ready native plants of Johnson County, Iowa
PlantType HeightLight Water useHardy to
arctic brome Bromus kalmii Grass or grass-like 3 ft Shade-tolerant Low Zone 4a
buffalograss Bouteloua dactyloides Grass or grass-like 6 in Sun Medium Zone 3b
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 wildrye Elymus canadensis Grass or grass-like 3 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3a
Canadian horseweed Conyza canadensis Wildflower (forb) 5 ft Sun Medium Zone 12b
chinquapin oak Quercus muehlenbergii Tree 70 ft Sun Medium Zone 4a
crested woodfern Dryopteris cristata Fern 1.6 ft Shade-tolerant High Zone 4a
cup plant Silphium perfoliatum Wildflower (forb) 6 ft Sun–part shade — Zone 2b
devil's beggartick Bidens frondosa Wildflower (forb) 4 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 12a
Drummond's rockcress Arabis drummondii Wildflower (forb) 2 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 3b
false daisy Eclipta prostrata Wildflower (forb) 3.2 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 10b
field horsetail Equisetum arvense Fern 11 in Sun–part shade High Zone 3a
fringeleaf wild petunia Ruellia humilis Wildflower (forb) 2.6 ft Shade-tolerant Low Zone 4a
Gray's sedge Carex grayi Grass or grass-like 3 ft Shade-tolerant High Zone 4a
green bulrush Scirpus atrovirens Grass or grass-like 5.9 ft Sun Medium Zone 2a
hairy white oldfield aster Symphyotrichum pilosum Wildflower (forb) 3 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 4a
hop sedge Carex lupulina Grass or grass-like 4.3 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 3b
Mexican muhly Muhlenbergia mexicana Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 4a
nannyberry Viburnum lentago Tree 28 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
oval-leaf sedge Carex cephalophora Grass or grass-like 2.6 ft Sun–part shade Low Zone 4a
pale purple coneflower Echinacea pallida Wildflower (forb) 1.2 ft Sun Medium Zone 4a
pin oak Quercus palustris Tree 100 ft Sun High Zone 4a
pinnate prairie coneflower Ratibida pinnata Wildflower (forb) 4 ft Sun Medium Zone 3b
prairie blazing star Liatris pycnostachya Wildflower (forb) 3.5 ft Sun Medium Zone 4a
prairie fleabane Erigeron strigosus Wildflower (forb) 3 ft Sun Medium Zone 4b
prairie wedgescale Sphenopholis obtusata Grass or grass-like 3.2 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 3a
purple lovegrass Eragrostis spectabilis Grass or grass-like 11 in Sun Low Zone 3a
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
roughfruit amaranth Amaranthus tuberculatus Wildflower (forb) 6.6 ft Sun High Zone 4a
sawtooth sunflower Helianthus grosseserratus Wildflower (forb) 5 ft Sun Medium Zone 3a
shingle oak Quercus imbricaria Tree 45 ft Sun Medium Zone 5b
sideoats grama Bouteloua curtipendula Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun Medium Zone 3a
smooth horsetail Equisetum laevigatum Fern 5 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
stalkless yellowcress Rorippa sessiliflora Wildflower (forb) 1.5 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 12b
threelobe beggarticks Bidens tripartita Wildflower (forb) 3.5 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 12a
upland bentgrass Agrostis perennans Grass or grass-like 3.5 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 4a
Virginia wildrye Elymus virginicus Grass or grass-like 2.5 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 4b
white oak Quercus alba Tree 100 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 3a
woodland muhly Muhlenbergia sylvatica Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 4b
yellow marsh marigold Caltha palustris Wildflower (forb) 2 ft Sun High Zone 3b

Other native species recorded here 52

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.

  • Adam and Eve Aplectrum hyemale
  • American burnweed Erechtites hieraciifolius
  • autumn coralroot Corallorhiza odontorhiza
  • balsam groundsel Packera paupercula
  • bearded shorthusk Brachyelytrum erectum
  • big devils beggartick Bidens vulgata
  • blue skullcap Scutellaria lateriflora
  • bluejacket Tradescantia ohiensis
  • bluntlobe cliff fern Woodsia obtusa
  • Chapman's bluegrass Poa chapmaniana
  • Christmas fern Polystichum acrostichoides
  • churchmouse threeawn Aristida dichotoma
  • clasping milkweed Asclepias amplexicaulis
  • clasping Venus' looking-glass Triodanis perfoliata
  • cutleaf grapefern Botrychium dissectum
  • cutleaf toothwort Cardamine concatenata
  • earlyleaf brome Bromus latiglumis
  • eastern marsh fern Thelypteris palustris
  • ebony spleenwort Asplenium platyneuron
  • feverwort Triosteum perfoliatum
  • fire on the mountain Euphorbia cyathophora
  • flat-top goldentop Euthamia graminifolia
  • forked threeawn Aristida basiramea
  • hairy woodland brome Bromus pubescens
  • Indian-tobacco Lobelia inflata
  • lanceleaf fogfruit Phyla lanceolata
  • Leiberg's panicum Dichanthelium leibergii
  • Mexican Mosquito Fern Azolla microphylla
  • narrowleaf vervain Verbena simplex
  • palespike lobelia Lobelia spicata
  • prairie groundsel Packera plattensis
  • purple milkweed Asclepias purpurascens
  • purple sandgrass Triplasis purpurea
  • rough rattlesnakeroot Prenanthes aspera
  • rue anemone Thalictrum thalictroides
  • sensitive fern Onoclea sensibilis
  • showy orchid Galearis spectabilis
  • sixweeks fescue Vulpia octoflora
  • small skullcap Scutellaria parvula
  • smallflower halfchaff sedge Lipocarpha micrantha
  • smooth cliffbrake Pellaea glabella
  • smooth oxeye Heliopsis helianthoides
  • spinulose woodfern Dryopteris carthusiana
  • stiff tickseed Coreopsis palmata
  • tall blazing star Liatris aspera
  • threeflower melicgrass Melica nitens
  • Virginia pepperweed Lepidium virginicum
  • Virginia springbeauty Claytonia virginica
  • walking fern Asplenium rhizophyllum
  • western silver aster Symphyotrichum sericeum
  • western tansymustard Descurainia pinnata
  • 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, Johnson County and Iowa
MeasureJohnson CountyTypical countyStatewide
Native species 96 44 1,374
Garden-ready natives 44 24 496
Tree 6 — 110
Shrub 0 — 72
Wildflower (forb) 50 — 779
Grass or grass-like 25 — 298
Vine 0 — 55
Fern 15 — 60

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Johnson 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
Johnson County (county FIPS 19103), Iowa. 96 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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