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Native plants · Iowa

Native plants of Lucas County

37 plant species are recorded as native to Iowa in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Lucas County by USDA PLANTS. 27 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Lucas County, Iowa

PLANTS records only 27 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Iowa list is a useful second check.

Native species
37 Typical Iowa county: 44 (median of 99 counties)
Garden-ready natives
27 Typical Iowa county: 24
Share by type (all 37 native species)
Percent of the 37 native species in each growth type
Wildflower (forb) 11% (4)
Grass or grass-like 81% (30)
Fern 8% (3)

Grasses and grass-like plants make up the largest share of the native list (81%), followed by wildflowers (11%).

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

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

Garden-ready natives 27

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

Garden-ready native plants of Lucas County, Iowa
PlantType HeightLight Water useHardy to
big bluestem Andropogon gerardii Grass or grass-like 6 ft Sun Low Zone 2b
bluejoint Calamagrostis canadensis Grass or grass-like 4.9 ft Sun Medium Zone 4a
broadleaf rosette grass Dichanthelium latifolium Grass or grass-like 3.3 ft Sun–part shade Low Zone 3a
Canada wildrye Elymus canadensis Grass or grass-like 3 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3a
devil's beggartick Bidens frondosa Wildflower (forb) 4 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 12a
eastern gamagrass Tripsacum dactyloides Grass or grass-like 5 ft Sun High Zone 5a
fall panicgrass Panicum dichotomiflorum Grass or grass-like 3.3 ft Sun High Zone 3a
fowl mannagrass Glyceria striata Grass or grass-like 5.7 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3b
Indiangrass Sorghastrum nutans Grass or grass-like 6 ft Sun Medium Zone 3b
little barley Hordeum pusillum Grass or grass-like 1.2 ft Sun Medium Zone 10b
little bluestem Schizachyrium scoparium Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
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
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
porcupinegrass Hesperostipa spartea Grass or grass-like 4 ft Sun Medium Zone 3b
prairie cordgrass Spartina pectinata Grass or grass-like 8 ft Sun High Zone 3b
prairie dropseed Sporobolus heterolepis Grass or grass-like 2.3 ft Sun–part shade Low Zone 3b
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
rattlesnake fern Botrychium virginianum Fern 1.4 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3b
sand dropseed Sporobolus cryptandrus Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
sideoats grama Bouteloua curtipendula Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun Medium Zone 3a
sweet woodreed Cinna arundinacea Grass or grass-like 4.9 ft Shade-tolerant Low Zone 4a
Virginia wildrye Elymus virginicus Grass or grass-like 2.5 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 4b
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 10

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.

  • bearded shorthusk Brachyelytrum erectum
  • bog yellowcress Rorippa palustris
  • hairy woodland brome Bromus pubescens
  • prairie threeawn Aristida oligantha
  • rock muhly Muhlenbergia sobolifera
  • sensitive fern Onoclea sensibilis
  • slender wedgescale Sphenopholis intermedia
  • slimleaf panicgrass Dichanthelium linearifolium
  • threeflower melicgrass Melica nitens
  • 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, Lucas County and Iowa
MeasureLucas CountyTypical countyStatewide
Native species 37 44 1,374
Garden-ready natives 27 24 496
Tree 0 — 110
Shrub 0 — 72
Wildflower (forb) 4 — 779
Grass or grass-like 30 — 298
Vine 0 — 55
Fern 3 — 60

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Lucas 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
Lucas County (county FIPS 19117), Iowa. 37 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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