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Native plants · Texas

Native plants of Dawson County

37 plant species are recorded as native to Texas in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Dawson County by USDA PLANTS. 20 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Dawson County, Texas

PLANTS records only 20 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Texas list is a useful second check.

Native species
37 Typical Texas county: 145 (median of 254 counties)
Garden-ready natives
20 Typical Texas county: 61
Share by type (all 37 native species)
Percent of the 37 native species in each growth type
Tree 5% (2)
Shrub 14% (5)
Wildflower (forb) 46% (17)
Grass or grass-like 30% (11)
Vine 5% (2)

Wildflowers make up the largest share of the native list (46%), followed by grasses and grass-like plants (30%).

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 8a (2023 map).

The native plant list

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

Garden-ready natives 20

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

Garden-ready native plants of Dawson County, Texas
PlantType HeightLight Water useHardy to
alkali sacaton Sporobolus airoides Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
American tarwort Flourensia cernua Shrub 3 ft Sun Low Zone 5a
black grama Bouteloua eriopoda Grass or grass-like 2 ft Sun Low Zone 5a
blue grama Bouteloua gracilis Grass or grass-like 1 ft Sun Medium Zone 3a
buffalograss Bouteloua dactyloides Grass or grass-like 6 in Sun Medium Zone 3b
eastern cottonwood Populus deltoides Tree 190 ft Sun High Zone 3a
eastern redbud Cercis canadensis Tree 30 ft Shade-tolerant Low Zone 4b
featherplume Dalea formosa Shrub 3 ft Sun Low Zone 6a
Indian blanket Gaillardia pulchella Wildflower (forb) 2 ft Sun Medium Zone 10b
lemonscent Pectis angustifolia Wildflower (forb) 8 in Sun Low Zone 5a
little barley Hordeum pusillum Grass or grass-like 1.2 ft Sun Medium Zone 10b
lyreleaf greeneyes Berlandiera lyrata Wildflower (forb) 4 ft Sun Low Zone 5a
Malabar sprangletop Leptochloa fusca Grass or grass-like 3.3 ft Sun High Zone 3a
Missouri gourd Cucurbita foetidissima Vine 1 ft Sun Low Zone 5a
purple threeawn Aristida purpurea Grass or grass-like 1.4 ft Sun Low Zone 4a
scarlet globemallow Sphaeralcea coccinea Wildflower (forb) 1.5 ft Sun Low Zone 5a
skunkbush sumac Rhus trilobata Shrub 4 ft Sun–part shade Low Zone 2a
soapweed yucca Yucca glauca Shrub 1 ft Sun Low Zone 4b
tobosagrass Pleuraphis mutica Grass or grass-like 2.3 ft Sun Low Zone 7b
vine mesquite Panicum obtusum Grass or grass-like 2 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 5a

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.

  • bigbract verbena Verbena bracteata
  • Cuman ragweed Ambrosia psilostachya
  • curvepod fumewort Corydalis curvisiliqua
  • Dakota mock vervain Glandularia bipinnatifida
  • Engelmann's daisy Engelmannia peristenia
  • fiveangled dodder Cuscuta pentagona
  • Hopi tea greenthread Thelesperma megapotamicum
  • James' cryptantha Cryptantha cinerea
  • lacy tansyaster Machaeranthera pinnatifida
  • pony beebalm Monarda pectinata
  • prairie sunflower Helianthus petiolaris
  • sand sagebrush Artemisia filifolia
  • scarlet beeblossom Oenothera suffrutescens
  • thin paspalum Paspalum setaceum
  • tumble windmill grass Chloris verticillata
  • whitemouth dayflower Commelina erecta
  • whitest evening primrose Oenothera albicaulis

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, Dawson County and Texas
MeasureDawson CountyTypical countyStatewide
Native species 37 145 1,683
Garden-ready natives 20 61 656
Tree 2 — 164
Shrub 5 — 90
Wildflower (forb) 17 — 877
Grass or grass-like 11 — 431
Vine 2 — 83
Fern 0 — 38

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Dawson 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
Dawson County (county FIPS 48115), Texas. 37 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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