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Native plants · Iowa

Native plants of Pocahontas County

33 plant species are recorded as native to Iowa in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Pocahontas County by USDA PLANTS. 22 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness. 1 more species is listed as both native and introduced and kept in a separate section.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Pocahontas 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
33 Typical Iowa county: 44 (median of 99 counties)
Garden-ready natives
22 Typical Iowa county: 24
Share by type (all 33 native species)
Percent of the 33 native species in each growth type
Wildflower (forb) 24% (8)
Grass or grass-like 70% (23)
Fern 6% (2)

Grasses and grass-like plants make up the largest share of the native list (70%), followed by wildflowers (24%).

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 Pocahontas 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
common cowparsnip Heracleum maximum Wildflower (forb) 8 ft Sun High Zone 3b
field horsetail Equisetum arvense Fern 11 in Sun–part shade High Zone 3a
Indiangrass Sorghastrum nutans Grass or grass-like 6 ft Sun Medium Zone 3b
little bluestem Schizachyrium scoparium Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
Malabar sprangletop Leptochloa fusca Grass or grass-like 3.3 ft Sun High Zone 3a
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 Junegrass Koeleria macrantha Grass or grass-like 1.5 ft Shade-tolerant High Zone 3b
prairie wedgescale Sphenopholis obtusata Grass or grass-like 3.2 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 3a
reed canarygrass Phalaris arundinacea Grass or grass-like 5 ft Sun High Zone 3b
rough bentgrass Agrostis scabra Grass or grass-like 2.5 ft Sun Medium Zone 3b
roughfruit amaranth Amaranthus tuberculatus Wildflower (forb) 6.6 ft Sun High Zone 4a
sideoats grama Bouteloua curtipendula Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun Medium Zone 3a
slender wheatgrass Elymus trachycaulus Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun Medium Zone 3b
smooth horsetail Equisetum laevigatum Fern 5 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
swamp milkweed Asclepias incarnata Wildflower (forb) 4.9 ft Sun High Zone 3b
switchgrass Panicum virgatum Grass or grass-like 5 ft Sun Medium Zone 3a
Virginia wildrye Elymus virginicus Grass or grass-like 2.5 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 4b

Other native species recorded here 11

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.

  • American mannagrass Glyceria grandis
  • balsam groundsel Packera paupercula
  • big devils beggartick Bidens vulgata
  • foxtail barley Hordeum jubatum
  • golden zizia Zizia aurea
  • hemlock waterparsnip Sium suave
  • Leiberg's panicum Dichanthelium leibergii
  • Macoun's barley ×Elyhordeum macounii
  • northern sweetgrass Hierochloe hirta
  • purple rattlesnakeroot Prenanthes racemosa
  • whitehair rosette grass Dichanthelium villosissimum
Also listed as native and introduced here 1

PLANTS labels these species both native and introduced in this state: some forms are native and others were brought in from elsewhere. Most gardeners should choose plants from the main list.

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, Pocahontas County and Iowa
MeasurePocahontas CountyTypical countyStatewide
Native species 33 44 1,374
Garden-ready natives 22 24 496
Tree 0 — 110
Shrub 0 — 72
Wildflower (forb) 8 — 779
Grass or grass-like 23 — 298
Vine 0 — 55
Fern 2 — 60

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Pocahontas 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
Pocahontas County (county FIPS 19151), Iowa. 33 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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