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Native plants · Iowa

Native plants of Mitchell County

36 plant species are recorded as native to Iowa in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Mitchell County by USDA PLANTS. 22 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Mitchell County, Iowa

PLANTS records only 22 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Iowa list is a useful second check.

Native species
36 Typical Iowa county: 44 (median of 99 counties)
Garden-ready natives
22 Typical Iowa county: 24
Share by type (all 36 native species)
Percent of the 36 native species in each growth type
Tree 3% (1)
Wildflower (forb) 53% (19)
Grass or grass-like 25% (9)
Vine 3% (1)
Fern 17% (6)

Wildflowers make up the largest share of the native list (53%), followed by grasses and grass-like plants (25%).

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 22

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

Garden-ready native plants of Mitchell County, Iowa
PlantType HeightLight Water useHardy to
American bellflower Campanulastrum americanum Wildflower (forb) 6 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 12b
blackeyed Susan Rudbeckia hirta Wildflower (forb) 1 ft Sun Medium Zone 5a
common sneezeweed Helenium autumnale Wildflower (forb) 4.9 ft Sun Medium 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
flatstem spikerush Eleocharis compressa Grass or grass-like 2 ft Sun High Zone 4a
jewelweed Impatiens capensis Wildflower (forb) 4.9 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 10b
little bluestem Schizachyrium scoparium Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun Low 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 bedstraw Galium boreale Wildflower (forb) 3 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 4a
northern maidenhair Adiantum pedatum Fern 1.3 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3b
pale touch-me-not Impatiens pallida Wildflower (forb) 8.2 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 10b
rattlesnake fern Botrychium virginianum Fern 1.4 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3b
redosier dogwood Cornus sericea Tree 12 ft Sun High Zone 3b
sawtooth sunflower Helianthus grosseserratus Wildflower (forb) 5 ft Sun Medium Zone 3a
smooth horsetail Equisetum laevigatum Fern 5 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
spotted joe pye weed Eutrochium maculatum Wildflower (forb) 6 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 4b
sweet woodreed Cinna arundinacea Grass or grass-like 4.9 ft Shade-tolerant Low Zone 4a
upright sedge Carex stricta Grass or grass-like 4.2 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3b
water sedge Carex aquatilis Grass or grass-like 2.9 ft Sun High Zone 3b
whitegrass Leersia virginica Grass or grass-like 3.9 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3a

Other native species recorded here 14

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.

  • button eryngo Eryngium yuccifolium
  • clasping Venus' looking-glass Triodanis perfoliata
  • Culver's root Veronicastrum virginicum
  • flowering spurge Euphorbia corollata
  • fragrant bedstraw Galium triflorum
  • golden zizia Zizia aurea
  • great blue lobelia Lobelia siphilitica
  • hairy woodland brome Bromus pubescens
  • Maximilian sunflower Helianthus maximiliani
  • Nuttall's prairie parsley Polytaenia nuttallii
  • sensitive fern Onoclea sensibilis
  • smooth cliffbrake Pellaea glabella
  • tall blazing star Liatris aspera
  • 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, Mitchell County and Iowa
MeasureMitchell CountyTypical countyStatewide
Native species 36 44 1,374
Garden-ready natives 22 24 496
Tree 1 — 110
Shrub 0 — 72
Wildflower (forb) 19 — 779
Grass or grass-like 9 — 298
Vine 1 — 55
Fern 6 — 60

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Mitchell 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
Mitchell County (county FIPS 19131), Iowa. 36 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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