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Native plants recorded in your state and county

Native plants · South Dakota

Native plants of Lake County

55 plant species are recorded as native to South Dakota in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Lake County by USDA PLANTS. 27 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Lake County, South Dakota

PLANTS records only 27 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the South Dakota list is a useful second check.

Native species
55 Typical South Dakota county: 110 (median of 65 counties)
Garden-ready natives
27 Typical South Dakota county: 59
Share by type (all 55 native species)
Percent of the 55 native species in each growth type
Tree 4% (2)
Shrub 5% (3)
Wildflower (forb) 67% (37)
Grass or grass-like 22% (12)
Vine 2% (1)

Wildflowers make up the largest share of the native list (67%), followed by grasses and grass-like plants (22%).

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 4b (2023 map).

The native plant list

Cold hardiness is estimated from each plant’s PLANTS minimum temperature. How we estimate it.

Garden-ready natives 27

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

Garden-ready native plants of Lake County, South Dakota
PlantType HeightLight Water useHardy to
American licorice Glycyrrhiza lepidota Wildflower (forb) 4 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 3b
American plum Prunus americana Tree 24 ft Sun Medium Zone 3b
bur oak Quercus macrocarpa Tree 100 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 3b
cloaked bulrush Scirpus pallidus Grass or grass-like 5 ft Sun Medium Zone 3b
common duckweed Lemna minor Wildflower (forb) — Sun High Zone 3b
common reed Phragmites australis Shrub 13 ft Sun Medium Zone 3b
coon's tail Ceratophyllum demersum Wildflower (forb) — Sun–part shade High Zone 3b
cosmopolitan bulrush Bolboschoenus maritimus Grass or grass-like 3.2 ft Sun Medium Zone 5a
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
fox sedge Carex vulpinoidea Grass or grass-like 3.2 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 3b
fragrant flatsedge Cyperus odoratus Grass or grass-like 2 ft Sun Medium Zone 11b
green needlegrass Nassella viridula Grass or grass-like 2 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
hardstem bulrush Schoenoplectus acutus Grass or grass-like 9.8 ft Sun High Zone 3b
Indianhemp Apocynum cannabinum Wildflower (forb) 3.3 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 3a
nodding beggartick Bidens cernua Wildflower (forb) 3.2 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 12a
reed canarygrass Phalaris arundinacea Grass or grass-like 5 ft Sun High Zone 3b
riverbank grape Vitis riparia Vine 45 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 4a
rough bugleweed Lycopus asper Wildflower (forb) 2.1 ft Shade-tolerant High Zone 3b
sago pondweed Stuckenia pectinata Wildflower (forb) — Sun High Zone 3b
silverweed cinquefoil Argentina anserina Wildflower (forb) 6 in Shade-tolerant High Zone 5a
slender wheatgrass Elymus trachycaulus Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun Medium Zone 3b
swamp milkweed Asclepias incarnata Wildflower (forb) 4.9 ft Sun High Zone 3b
threadleaf sedge Carex filifolia Grass or grass-like 1.2 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
Torrey's rush Juncus torreyi Grass or grass-like 3.1 ft Sun Medium Zone 3b
upright prairie coneflower Ratibida columnifera Wildflower (forb) 3.1 ft Sun Medium Zone 3a
western snowberry Symphoricarpos occidentalis Shrub 3 ft Sun–part shade Low Zone 3b

Other native species recorded here 28

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.

  • Aunt Lucy Ellisia nyctelea
  • biannual lettuce Lactuca ludoviciana
  • bigbract verbena Verbena bracteata
  • Canadian anemone Anemone canadensis
  • common milkweed Asclepias syriaca
  • curlycup gumweed Grindelia squarrosa
  • curlytop knotweed Polygonum lapathifolium
  • fire on the mountain Euphorbia cyathophora
  • foxtail barley Hordeum jubatum
  • golden zizia Zizia aurea
  • groundplum milkvetch Astragalus crassicarpus
  • heartleaf four o'clock Mirabilis nyctaginea
  • hoary puccoon Lithospermum canescens
  • hoary verbena Verbena stricta
  • narrowleaf stoneseed Lithospermum incisum
  • Northern Idaho biscuitroot Lomatium orientale
  • prairie blue-eyed grass Sisyrinchium campestre
  • prairie rose Rosa arkansana
  • prairie violet Viola pedatifida
  • redwhisker clammyweed Polanisia dodecandra
  • Richardson's pondweed Potamogeton richardsonii
  • smooth oxeye Heliopsis helianthoides
  • soft-hair marbleseed Onosmodium bejariense
  • spiral ditchgrass Ruppia cirrhosa
  • spotted water hemlock Cicuta maculata
  • warty spurge Euphorbia spathulata
  • western rockjasmine Androsace occidentalis
  • witchgrass Panicum capillare

Compared with South Dakota

The typical county is the median of the 65 South Dakota 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, Lake County and South Dakota
MeasureLake CountyTypical countyStatewide
Native species 55 110 1,092
Garden-ready natives 27 59 473
Tree 2 — 61
Shrub 3 — 69
Wildflower (forb) 37 — 640
Grass or grass-like 12 — 243
Vine 1 — 34
Fern 0 — 45

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Lake 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
Lake County (county FIPS 46079), South Dakota. 55 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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