Native plants · Texas

Native plants of Ector County

65 plant species are recorded as native to Texas in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Ector County by USDA PLANTS. 28 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Ector County, Texas

PLANTS records only 28 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Texas list is a useful second check.

Native species: 65 Typical Texas county: 145 (median of 254 counties)
Garden-ready natives: 28 Typical Texas county: 61
Share by type (all 65 native species): Percent of the 65 native species in each growth type

Tree 5% (3)
Shrub 9% (6)
Wildflower (forb) 60% (39)
Grass or grass-like 25% (16)
Vine 2% (1)

Wildflowers make up the largest share of the native list (60%), followed by grasses and grass-like plants (25%).

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 8a to 8b (2023 map).

The native plant list

Garden-ready natives 28

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

Garden-ready native plants of Ector County, Texas
Plant	Type	Height	Light	Water use	Hardy to
Arizona cottontop Digitaria californica	Grass or grass-like	4 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 6a
black grama Bouteloua eriopoda	Grass or grass-like	2 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 5a
broom snakeweed Gutierrezia sarothrae	Shrub	1.5 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 3b
buffalograss Bouteloua dactyloides	Grass or grass-like	6 in	Sun	Medium	Zone 3b
California amaranth Amaranthus californicus	Wildflower (forb)	1 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 7a
cane bluestem Bothriochloa barbinodis	Grass or grass-like	4 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 7b
catclaw acacia Senegalia greggii	Tree	20 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 6a
creeping muhly Muhlenbergia repens	Grass or grass-like	1 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 9a
desert willow Chilopsis linearis	Tree	25 ft	Sun–part shade	Low	Zone 5a
featherplume Dalea formosa	Shrub	3 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 6a
fourwing saltbush Atriplex canescens	Shrub	4 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 3a
golden crownbeard Verbesina encelioides	Wildflower (forb)	2 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 5a
green prairie coneflower Ratibida tagetes	Wildflower (forb)	1 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 4b
hairy grama Bouteloua hirsuta	Grass or grass-like	6 in	Sun	Low	Zone 3b
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
little bluestem Schizachyrium scoparium	Grass or grass-like	3 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 3b
littleleaf sumac Rhus microphylla	Tree	10 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 6a
mesa dropseed Sporobolus flexuosus	Grass or grass-like	3 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 7a
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
scarlet globemallow Sphaeralcea coccinea	Wildflower (forb)	1.5 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 5a
sideoats grama Bouteloua curtipendula	Grass or grass-like	3 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 3a
soapweed yucca Yucca glauca	Shrub	1 ft	Sun	Low	Zone 4b
tanseyleaf tansyaster Machaeranthera tanacetifolia	Wildflower (forb)	2 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 4a
upright prairie coneflower Ratibida columnifera	Wildflower (forb)	3.1 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 3a
woolly plantain Plantago patagonica	Wildflower (forb)	6 in	Sun	Low	Zone 12b

Other native species recorded here 37

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.

American star-thistle Centaurea americana
camphorweed Heterotheca subaxillaris
coastal sandbur Cenchrus spinifex
crowpoison Nothoscordum bivalve
curvepod fumewort Corydalis curvisiliqua
Engelmann's daisy Engelmannia peristenia
false buffalograss Munroa squarrosa
flatspine stickseed Lappula occidentalis
Geyer's sandmat Chamaesyce geyeri
green carpetweed Mollugo verticillata
lacy tansyaster Machaeranthera pinnatifida
Louisiana vetch Vicia ludoviciana
matted sandmat Chamaesyce serpens
mealy goosefoot Chenopodium incanum
narrowleaf stoneseed Lithospermum incisum
prairie sunflower Helianthus petiolaris
purple sandgrass Triplasis purpurea
ram's horn Proboscidea louisianica
redseed plantain Plantago rhodosperma
ribseed sandmat Chamaesyce glyptosperma
sand sagebrush Artemisia filifolia
sandhill amaranth Amaranthus arenicola
scarlet beeblossom Oenothera suffrutescens
silky prairie clover Dalea villosa
sixweeks threeawn Aristida adscensionis
sleepy silene Silene antirrhina
slender snakecotton Froelichia gracilis
sneezeweed Helenium amarum
snowball sand verbena Abronia fragrans
Spanish gold Grindelia papposa
twistspine pricklypear Opuntia macrorhiza
warty caltrop Kallstroemia parviflora
wedgeleaf draba Draba cuneifolia
western tansymustard Descurainia pinnata
whitemouth dayflower Commelina erecta
woolly tidestromia Tidestromia lanuginosa
Wright's plantain Plantago wrightiana

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, Ector County and Texas
Measure	Ector County	Typical county	Statewide
Native species	65	145	1,683
Garden-ready natives	28	61	656
Tree	3	—	164
Shrub	6	—	90
Wildflower (forb)	39	—	877
Grass or grass-like	16	—	431
Vine	1	—	83
Fern	0	—	38

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Ector County.

Crane County, TX 40 garden-ready
Midland County, TX 19 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: Ector County (county FIPS 48135), Texas. 65 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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