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Native plants recorded in your state and county

Native plants · Iowa

Native plants of Marion County

46 plant species are recorded as native to Iowa in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Marion County by USDA PLANTS. 17 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Marion County, Iowa

PLANTS records only 17 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Iowa list is a useful second check.

Native species
46 Typical Iowa county: 44 (median of 99 counties)
Garden-ready natives
17 Typical Iowa county: 24
Share by type (all 46 native species)
Percent of the 46 native species in each growth type
Tree 2% (1)
Wildflower (forb) 22% (10)
Grass or grass-like 59% (27)
Fern 17% (8)

Grasses and grass-like plants make up the largest share of the native list (59%), followed by wildflowers (22%).

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 17

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

Garden-ready native plants of Marion County, Iowa
PlantType HeightLight Water useHardy to
Canada wildrye Elymus canadensis Grass or grass-like 3 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3a
Carolina foxtail Alopecurus carolinianus Grass or grass-like 1.7 ft Sun Low 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
fowl mannagrass Glyceria striata Grass or grass-like 5.7 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3b
marsh muhly Muhlenbergia racemosa Grass or grass-like 3 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3b
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
peachleaf willow Salix amygdaloides Tree 60 ft Sun High Zone 4a
reed canarygrass Phalaris arundinacea Grass or grass-like 5 ft Sun High Zone 3b
smooth horsetail Equisetum laevigatum Fern 5 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
spreading yellowcress Rorippa sinuata Wildflower (forb) 1 ft Sun Medium Zone 3b
stalkless yellowcress Rorippa sessiliflora Wildflower (forb) 1.5 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 12b
western wheatgrass Pascopyrum smithii Grass or grass-like 2 ft Sun Medium Zone 3a
whitegrass Leersia virginica Grass or grass-like 3.9 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3a
winter bentgrass Agrostis hyemalis Grass or grass-like 3.5 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 4a
woodland bluegrass Poa sylvestris Grass or grass-like 3 ft Shade-tolerant High Zone 4a

Other native species recorded here 29

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
  • big devils beggartick Bidens vulgata
  • bigbract verbena Verbena bracteata
  • bluntlobe cliff fern Woodsia obtusa
  • Canadian wildginger Asarum canadense
  • churchmouse threeawn Aristida dichotoma
  • forked threeawn Aristida basiramea
  • foxtail barley Hordeum jubatum
  • hairy woodland brome Bromus pubescens
  • Heller's rosette grass Dichanthelium oligosanthes
  • hoary verbena Verbena stricta
  • James' sedge Carex jamesii
  • lace grass Eragrostis capillaris
  • mat sandbur Cenchrus longispinus
  • poverty oatgrass Danthonia spicata
  • prairie groundsel Packera plattensis
  • prairie threeawn Aristida oligantha
  • rock muhly Muhlenbergia sobolifera
  • sensitive fern Onoclea sensibilis
  • sixweeks fescue Vulpia octoflora
  • slender wedgescale Sphenopholis intermedia
  • slimleaf panicgrass Dichanthelium linearifolium
  • smooth cliffbrake Pellaea glabella
  • spinulose woodfern Dryopteris carthusiana
  • swamp verbena Verbena hastata
  • thin paspalum Paspalum setaceum
  • tufted lovegrass Eragrostis pectinacea
  • walking fern Asplenium rhizophyllum
  • white vervain Verbena urticifolia

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, Marion County and Iowa
MeasureMarion CountyTypical countyStatewide
Native species 46 44 1,374
Garden-ready natives 17 24 496
Tree 1 — 110
Shrub 0 — 72
Wildflower (forb) 10 — 779
Grass or grass-like 27 — 298
Vine 0 — 55
Fern 8 — 60

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Marion 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
Marion County (county FIPS 19125), Iowa. 46 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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