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Native plants · Texas

Native plants of Gaines County

51 plant species are recorded as native to Texas in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Gaines County by USDA PLANTS. 18 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Gaines County, Texas

PLANTS records only 18 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Texas list is a useful second check.

Native species
51 Typical Texas county: 145 (median of 254 counties)
Garden-ready natives
18 Typical Texas county: 61
Share by type (all 51 native species)
Percent of the 51 native species in each growth type
Tree 2% (1)
Shrub 8% (4)
Wildflower (forb) 61% (31)
Grass or grass-like 29% (15)

Wildflowers make up the largest share of the native list (61%), followed by grasses and grass-like plants (29%).

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 18

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

Garden-ready native plants of Gaines County, Texas
PlantType HeightLight Water useHardy to
big bluestem Andropogon gerardii Grass or grass-like 6 ft Sun Low Zone 2b
blue grama Bouteloua gracilis Grass or grass-like 1 ft Sun Medium Zone 3a
broom snakeweed Gutierrezia sarothrae Shrub 1.5 ft Sun Medium Zone 3b
fourwing saltbush Atriplex canescens Shrub 4 ft Sun Medium Zone 3a
golden crownbeard Verbesina encelioides Wildflower (forb) 2 ft Sun Medium Zone 5a
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
lemonscent Pectis angustifolia Wildflower (forb) 8 in Sun Low Zone 5a
little bluestem Schizachyrium scoparium Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
lyreleaf greeneyes Berlandiera lyrata Wildflower (forb) 4 ft Sun Low Zone 5a
purple prairie clover Dalea purpurea Wildflower (forb) 3 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
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
squirreltail Elymus elymoides Grass or grass-like 1.5 ft Sun Low Zone 3a

Other native species recorded here 33

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 bugseed Corispermum americanum
  • annual buckwheat Eriogonum annuum
  • bigbract verbena Verbena bracteata
  • camphorweed Heterotheca subaxillaris
  • coastal sandbur Cenchrus spinifex
  • curvepod fumewort Corydalis curvisiliqua
  • Engelmann's daisy Engelmannia peristenia
  • false boneset Brickellia eupatorioides
  • false buffalograss Munroa squarrosa
  • fourpoint evening primrose Oenothera rhombipetala
  • hairy pinweed Lechea mucronata
  • Hopi tea greenthread Thelesperma megapotamicum
  • lacy tansyaster Machaeranthera pinnatifida
  • narrowleaf stoneseed Lithospermum incisum
  • pitseed goosefoot Chenopodium berlandieri
  • prairie sunflower Helianthus petiolaris
  • purple sandgrass Triplasis purpurea
  • ram's horn Proboscidea louisianica
  • ribseed sandmat Chamaesyce glyptosperma
  • sand sagebrush Artemisia filifolia
  • sandhill amaranth Amaranthus arenicola
  • shaggy dwarf morning-glory Evolvulus nuttallianus
  • sixweeks threeawn Aristida adscensionis
  • slender snakecotton Froelichia gracilis
  • Spanish gold Grindelia papposa
  • spike dropseed Sporobolus contractus
  • spotted beebalm Monarda punctata
  • thin paspalum Paspalum setaceum
  • western tansymustard Descurainia pinnata
  • whitemouth dayflower Commelina erecta
  • whitest evening primrose Oenothera albicaulis
  • winged pigweed Cycloloma atriplicifolium
  • witchgrass Panicum capillare

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, Gaines County and Texas
MeasureGaines CountyTypical countyStatewide
Native species 51 145 1,683
Garden-ready natives 18 61 656
Tree 1 — 164
Shrub 4 — 90
Wildflower (forb) 31 — 877
Grass or grass-like 15 — 431
Vine 0 — 83
Fern 0 — 38

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Gaines 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
Gaines County (county FIPS 48165), Texas. 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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