Native plants · Texas

Native plants of Brooks County

71 plant species are recorded as native to Texas in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Brooks County by USDA PLANTS. 26 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

Brooks County, Texas

PLANTS records only 26 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Texas list is a useful second check.

Native species: 71 Typical Texas county: 145 (median of 254 counties)
Garden-ready natives: 26 Typical Texas county: 61
Share by type (all 71 native species): Percent of the 71 native species in each growth type

Tree 1% (1)
Wildflower (forb) 56% (40)
Grass or grass-like 39% (28)
Vine 3% (2)

Wildflowers make up the largest share of the native list (56%), followed by grasses and grass-like plants (39%).

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 9b (2023 map).

The native plant list

Garden-ready natives 26

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

Garden-ready native plants of Brooks County, Texas
Plant	Type	Height	Light	Water use	Hardy to
Arizona cottontop Digitaria californica	Grass or grass-like	4 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 6a
big bluestem Andropogon gerardii	Grass or grass-like	6 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 2b
big sacaton Sporobolus wrightii	Grass or grass-like	5.5 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 6a
broomsedge bluestem Andropogon virginicus	Grass or grass-like	3 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 5b
brownseed paspalum Paspalum plicatulum	Grass or grass-like	3.3 ft	Sun–part shade	Low	Zone 8a
Canada wildrye Elymus canadensis	Grass or grass-like	3 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 3a
cane bluestem Bothriochloa barbinodis	Grass or grass-like	4 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 7b
golden crownbeard Verbesina encelioides	Wildflower (forb)	2 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 5a
golden tickseed Coreopsis tinctoria	Wildflower (forb)	3 ft	Sun–part shade	High	Zone 12b
green sprangletop Leptochloa dubia	Grass or grass-like	3 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 6a
gulf cordgrass Spartina spartinae	Grass or grass-like	6.6 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 9a
hairy grama Bouteloua hirsuta	Grass or grass-like	6 in	Sun	Low	Zone 3b
honey mesquite Prosopis glandulosa	Tree	50 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 6a
Indian blanket Gaillardia pulchella	Wildflower (forb)	2 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 10b
Malabar sprangletop Leptochloa fusca	Grass or grass-like	3.3 ft	Sun	High	Zone 3a
partridge pea Chamaecrista fasciculata	Wildflower (forb)	2.4 ft	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 7a
plains lovegrass Eragrostis intermedia	Grass or grass-like	2.7 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 5a
purple lovegrass Eragrostis spectabilis	Grass or grass-like	11 in	Sun	Low	Zone 3a
purple poppymallow Callirhoe involucrata	Wildflower (forb)	1 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 3b
purple threeawn Aristida purpurea	Grass or grass-like	1.4 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 4a
sand dropseed Sporobolus cryptandrus	Grass or grass-like	3 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 3b
sweetscent Pluchea odorata	Wildflower (forb)	4.9 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 6a
switchgrass Panicum virgatum	Grass or grass-like	5 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 3a
tanglehead Heteropogon contortus	Grass or grass-like	8 in	Sun	Low	Zone 8a
turkey tangle fogfruit Phyla nodiflora	Wildflower (forb)	2 in	Sun–part shade	Low	Zone 5b
upright prairie coneflower Ratibida columnifera	Wildflower (forb)	3.1 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 3a

Other native species recorded here 45

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.

annual seepweed Suaeda linearis
blue mudplantain Heteranthera limosa
camphorweed Heterotheca subaxillaris
carelessweed Amaranthus palmeri
Carolina woollywhite Hymenopappus scabiosaeus
catchfly prairie gentian Eustoma exaltatum
clasping Venus' looking-glass Triodanis perfoliata
coastal sandbur Cenchrus spinifex
Cuman ragweed Ambrosia psilostachya
Engelmann's daisy Engelmannia peristenia
gaping grass Steinchisma hians
green carpetweed Mollugo verticillata
Heller's rosette grass Dichanthelium oligosanthes
hogwort Croton capitatus
juniper leaf Polypremum procumbens
lacy tansyaster Machaeranthera pinnatifida
lanceleaf blanketflower Gaillardia aestivalis
Louisiana vetch Vicia ludoviciana
lowland rotala Rotala ramosior
Madagascar dropseed Sporobolus pyramidatus
mucronate sprangletop Leptochloa panicea
narrowleaf stoneseed Lithospermum incisum
Pennsylvania everlasting Gamochaeta pensylvanica
pink thoroughwort Fleischmannia incarnata
pinkladies Oenothera speciosa
pitseed goosefoot Chenopodium berlandieri
poorjoe Diodia teres
prairie sandmat Chamaesyce missurica
prickly fanpetals Sida spinosa
purple sandgrass Triplasis purpurea
red lovegrass Eragrostis secundiflora
ribseed sandmat Chamaesyce glyptosperma
roundseed panicgrass Dichanthelium sphaerocarpon
sleepy silene Silene antirrhina
smallflower fumewort Corydalis micrantha
spurred butterfly pea Centrosema virginianum
Texas goldentop Euthamia gymnospermoides
Texas signalgrass Urochloa texana
Texas vervain Verbena halei
thin paspalum Paspalum setaceum
upright burhead Echinodorus berteroi
western tansymustard Descurainia pinnata
whitemouth dayflower Commelina erecta
witchgrass Panicum capillare
woolly tidestromia Tidestromia lanuginosa

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.

common pepperweedLepidium densiflorum

Compared with Texas

The typical county is the median of the 254 Texas 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, Brooks County and Texas
Measure	Brooks County	Typical county	Statewide
Native species	71	145	1,683
Garden-ready natives	26	61	656
Tree	1	—	164
Shrub	0	—	90
Wildflower (forb)	40	—	877
Grass or grass-like	28	—	431
Vine	2	—	83
Fern	0	—	38

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Brooks County.

Jim Wells County, TX 35 garden-ready
Kleberg County, TX 72 garden-ready

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: Brooks County (county FIPS 48047), Texas. 71 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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