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Native plants · Iowa

Native plants of Poweshiek County

35 plant species are recorded as native to Iowa in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Poweshiek County by USDA PLANTS. 18 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Poweshiek County, Iowa

PLANTS records only 18 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Iowa list is a useful second check.

Native species
35 Typical Iowa county: 44 (median of 99 counties)
Garden-ready natives
18 Typical Iowa county: 24
Share by type (all 35 native species)
Percent of the 35 native species in each growth type
Tree 3% (1)
Shrub 3% (1)
Wildflower (forb) 80% (28)
Grass or grass-like 3% (1)
Fern 11% (4)

Wildflowers make up the largest share of the native list (80%), followed by ferns (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 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 18

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

Garden-ready native plants of Poweshiek County, Iowa
PlantType HeightLight Water useHardy to
black cherry Prunus serotina Tree 80 ft Sun Medium Zone 4a
bulbous bittercress Cardamine bulbosa Wildflower (forb) 1.4 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 4a
common blue wood aster Symphyotrichum cordifolium Wildflower (forb) 5 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
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
leadplant Amorpha canescens Shrub 4 ft Shade-tolerant Low Zone 3b
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
partridge pea Chamaecrista fasciculata Wildflower (forb) 2.4 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 7a
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
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
roundhead lespedeza Lespedeza capitata Wildflower (forb) 2.6 ft Sun Low Zone 4b
smooth blue aster Symphyotrichum laeve Wildflower (forb) 4 ft Sun Medium Zone 3a
smooth horsetail Equisetum laevigatum Fern 5 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
white doll's daisy Boltonia asteroides Wildflower (forb) 8 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 3b
white sagebrush Artemisia ludoviciana Wildflower (forb) 3 ft Sun Low Zone 4a

Other native species recorded here 17

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.

  • bastard toadflax Comandra umbellata
  • bigbract verbena Verbena bracteata
  • button eryngo Eryngium yuccifolium
  • dutchman's breeches Dicentra cucullaria
  • feverwort Triosteum perfoliatum
  • foxtail prairie clover Dalea leporina
  • hoary verbena Verbena stricta
  • Illinois ticktrefoil Desmodium illinoense
  • meadow garlic Allium canadense
  • prairie threeawn Aristida oligantha
  • silverleaf Indian breadroot Pediomelum argophyllum
  • small skullcap Scutellaria parvula
  • swamp verbena Verbena hastata
  • sweet coneflower Rudbeckia subtomentosa
  • tall thistle Cirsium altissimum
  • western silver aster Symphyotrichum sericeum
  • 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, Poweshiek County and Iowa
MeasurePoweshiek CountyTypical countyStatewide
Native species 35 44 1,374
Garden-ready natives 18 24 496
Tree 1 — 110
Shrub 1 — 72
Wildflower (forb) 28 — 779
Grass or grass-like 1 — 298
Vine 0 — 55
Fern 4 — 60

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Poweshiek 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
Poweshiek County (county FIPS 19157), Iowa. 35 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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