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Native plants recorded in your state and county

Native plants · Nebraska

Native plants of Pierce County

51 plant species are recorded as native to Nebraska in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Pierce County by USDA PLANTS. 24 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Pierce County, Nebraska

PLANTS records only 24 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Nebraska list is a useful second check.

Native species
51 Typical Nebraska county: 169 (median of 93 counties)
Garden-ready natives
24 Typical Nebraska county: 81
Share by type (all 51 native species)
Percent of the 51 native species in each growth type
Tree 2% (1)
Shrub 6% (3)
Wildflower (forb) 75% (38)
Grass or grass-like 14% (7)
Vine 2% (1)
Fern 2% (1)

Wildflowers make up the largest share of the native list (75%), followed by grasses and grass-like plants (14%).

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 24

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

Garden-ready native plants of Pierce County, Nebraska
PlantType HeightLight Water useHardy to
alkali buttercup Ranunculus cymbalaria Wildflower (forb) 1 ft Shade-tolerant High Zone 3b
blackeyed Susan Rudbeckia hirta Wildflower (forb) 1 ft Sun Medium Zone 5a
buffalograss Bouteloua dactyloides Grass or grass-like 6 in Sun Medium Zone 3b
Canada wildrye Elymus canadensis Grass or grass-like 3 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3a
closed bottle gentian Gentiana andrewsii Wildflower (forb) 2 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 3b
common goldstar Hypoxis hirsuta Wildflower (forb) 10 in Sun–part shade Medium Zone 4a
devil's beggartick Bidens frondosa Wildflower (forb) 4 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 12a
field pussytoes Antennaria neglecta Wildflower (forb) 1 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
nodding beggartick Bidens cernua Wildflower (forb) 3.2 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 12a
Philadelphia fleabane Erigeron philadelphicus Wildflower (forb) 2.8 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 4b
porcupinegrass Hesperostipa spartea Grass or grass-like 4 ft Sun Medium Zone 3b
purple locoweed Oxytropis lambertii Wildflower (forb) 1.4 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
roughfruit amaranth Amaranthus tuberculatus Wildflower (forb) 6.6 ft Sun High Zone 4a
sandbar willow Salix interior Tree 30 ft Sun — Zone 1a
sandcherry Prunus pumila Shrub 6 ft Shade-tolerant Low Zone 4a
soapweed yucca Yucca glauca Shrub 1 ft Sun Low Zone 4b
tall cinquefoil Potentilla arguta Wildflower (forb) 3 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 3b
threelobe beggarticks Bidens tripartita Wildflower (forb) 3.5 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 12a
threepetal bedstraw Galium trifidum Vine 10 in Sun–part shade High Zone 3b
tufted loosestrife Lysimachia thyrsiflora Wildflower (forb) 2 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 4a
upright prairie coneflower Ratibida columnifera Wildflower (forb) 3.1 ft Sun Medium Zone 3a
Virginia wildrye Elymus virginicus Grass or grass-like 2.5 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 4b
woolly plantain Plantago patagonica Wildflower (forb) 6 in Sun Low Zone 12b
yellow marsh marigold Caltha palustris Wildflower (forb) 2 ft Sun High Zone 3b

Other native species recorded here 27

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.

  • Allegheny monkeyflower Mimulus ringens
  • big devils beggartick Bidens vulgata
  • bigbract verbena Verbena bracteata
  • Canadian anemone Anemone canadensis
  • Canadian blacksnakeroot Sanicula canadensis
  • Carolina puccoon Lithospermum caroliniense
  • clasping Venus' looking-glass Triodanis perfoliata
  • foothill bladderpod Lesquerella ludoviciana
  • grooved flax Linum sulcatum
  • hairy waterclover Marsilea vestita
  • heartleaf four o'clock Mirabilis nyctaginea
  • Heller's rosette grass Dichanthelium oligosanthes
  • hoary puccoon Lithospermum canescens
  • hoary verbena Verbena stricta
  • lacy tansyaster Machaeranthera pinnatifida
  • large beardtongue Penstemon grandiflorus
  • narrowleaf purple coneflower Echinacea angustifolia
  • narrowleaf stoneseed Lithospermum incisum
  • needleleaf sedge Carex duriuscula
  • Northern Idaho biscuitroot Lomatium orientale
  • northern water plantain Alisma triviale
  • prairie groundsel Packera plattensis
  • prairie rose Rosa arkansana
  • prairie spiderwort Tradescantia occidentalis
  • shortbeak sedge Carex brevior
  • silverleaf Indian breadroot Pediomelum argophyllum
  • veiny dock Rumex venosus

Compared with Nebraska

The typical county is the median of the 93 Nebraska 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, Pierce County and Nebraska
MeasurePierce CountyTypical countyStatewide
Native species 51 169 1,131
Garden-ready natives 24 81 452
Tree 1 — 68
Shrub 3 — 48
Wildflower (forb) 38 — 687
Grass or grass-like 7 — 253
Vine 1 — 46
Fern 1 — 29

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Pierce 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
Pierce County (county FIPS 31139), Nebraska. 51 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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