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Native plants recorded in your state and county

Native plants · Iowa

Native plants of Scott County

25 plant species are recorded as native to Iowa in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Scott County by USDA PLANTS. 11 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Scott County, Iowa

PLANTS records only 11 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Iowa list is a useful second check.

Native species
25 Typical Iowa county: 44 (median of 99 counties)
Garden-ready natives
11 Typical Iowa county: 24
Share by type (all 25 native species)
Percent of the 25 native species in each growth type
Wildflower (forb) 44% (11)
Grass or grass-like 8% (2)
Fern 48% (12)

Ferns make up the largest share of the native list (48%), followed by wildflowers (44%).

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 11

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

Garden-ready native plants of Scott County, Iowa
PlantType HeightLight Water useHardy to
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
nodding beggartick Bidens cernua Wildflower (forb) 3.2 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 12a
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
smooth horsetail Equisetum laevigatum Fern 5 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
stalkless yellowcress Rorippa sessiliflora Wildflower (forb) 1.5 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 12b
swamp milkweed Asclepias incarnata Wildflower (forb) 4.9 ft Sun High Zone 3b
threelobe beggarticks Bidens tripartita Wildflower (forb) 3.5 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 12a
water horsetail Equisetum fluviatile Fern 3 ft Sun High Zone 4a
woodland bluegrass Poa sylvestris Grass or grass-like 3 ft Shade-tolerant High Zone 4a

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.

  • balsam groundsel Packera paupercula
  • bluntlobe cliff fern Woodsia obtusa
  • Christmas fern Polystichum acrostichoides
  • eastern marsh fern Thelypteris palustris
  • ebony spleenwort Asplenium platyneuron
  • fall witchgrass Digitaria cognata
  • fire on the mountain Euphorbia cyathophora
  • Mexican Mosquito Fern Azolla microphylla
  • sensitive fern Onoclea sensibilis
  • small skullcap Scutellaria parvula
  • smooth cliffbrake Pellaea glabella
  • walking fern Asplenium rhizophyllum
  • western rockjasmine Androsace occidentalis
  • 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, Scott County and Iowa
MeasureScott CountyTypical countyStatewide
Native species 25 44 1,374
Garden-ready natives 11 24 496
Tree 0 — 110
Shrub 0 — 72
Wildflower (forb) 11 — 779
Grass or grass-like 2 — 298
Vine 0 — 55
Fern 12 — 60

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Scott 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
Scott County (county FIPS 19163), Iowa. 25 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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