Natives by ZIP

Native plants recorded in your state and county

Native plants · Texas

Native plants of Sterling County

48 plant species are recorded as native to Texas in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Sterling County by USDA PLANTS. 19 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Sterling County, Texas

PLANTS records only 19 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Texas list is a useful second check.

Native species
48 Typical Texas county: 145 (median of 254 counties)
Garden-ready natives
19 Typical Texas county: 61
Share by type (all 48 native species)
Percent of the 48 native species in each growth type
Tree 2% (1)
Shrub 8% (4)
Wildflower (forb) 52% (25)
Grass or grass-like 31% (15)
Vine 4% (2)
Fern 2% (1)

Wildflowers make up the largest share of the native list (52%), followed by grasses and grass-like plants (31%).

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 19

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

Garden-ready native plants of Sterling County, Texas
PlantType HeightLight Water useHardy to
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
Canada wildrye Elymus canadensis Grass or grass-like 3 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3a
featherplume Dalea formosa Shrub 3 ft Sun Low Zone 6a
fragrant flatsedge Cyperus odoratus Grass or grass-like 2 ft Sun Medium Zone 11b
giant goldenrod Solidago gigantea Wildflower (forb) 8.2 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 4a
green sprangletop Leptochloa dubia Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun Medium Zone 6a
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
lyreleaf greeneyes Berlandiera lyrata Wildflower (forb) 4 ft Sun Low Zone 5a
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
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
stalkless yellowcress Rorippa sessiliflora Wildflower (forb) 1.5 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 12b
tobosagrass Pleuraphis mutica Grass or grass-like 2.3 ft Sun Low Zone 7b
woolly locoweed Astragalus mollissimus Wildflower (forb) 2 ft Sun Low Zone 4b

Other native species recorded here 29

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
  • Carolina coralbead Cocculus carolinus
  • Carolina woollywhite Hymenopappus scabiosaeus
  • chickenthief Mentzelia oligosperma
  • coastal sandbur Cenchrus spinifex
  • curlytop knotweed Polygonum lapathifolium
  • Drummond's false pennyroyal Hedeoma drummondii
  • Engelmann's daisy Engelmannia peristenia
  • feather fingergrass Chloris virgata
  • lacy tansyaster Machaeranthera pinnatifida
  • matted sandmat Chamaesyce serpens
  • narrowleaf stoneseed Lithospermum incisum
  • neckweed Veronica peregrina
  • ribseed sandmat Chamaesyce glyptosperma
  • sand spikerush Eleocharis montevidensis
  • scarlet beeblossom Oenothera suffrutescens
  • silverleaf nightshade Solanum elaeagnifolium
  • sleepy silene Silene antirrhina
  • slender lipfern Cheilanthes feei
  • sorrelvine Cissus trifoliata
  • Spanish gold Grindelia papposa
  • spinystar Escobaria vivipara
  • spotted water hemlock Cicuta maculata
  • tumble windmill grass Chloris verticillata
  • twoflower melicgrass Melica mutica
  • warty spurge Euphorbia spathulata
  • western tansymustard Descurainia pinnata
  • whitemouth dayflower Commelina erecta
  • woolly tidestromia Tidestromia lanuginosa

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, Sterling County and Texas
MeasureSterling CountyTypical countyStatewide
Native species 48 145 1,683
Garden-ready natives 19 61 656
Tree 1 — 164
Shrub 4 — 90
Wildflower (forb) 25 — 877
Grass or grass-like 15 — 431
Vine 2 — 83
Fern 1 — 38

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Sterling 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
Sterling County (county FIPS 48431), Texas. 48 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

Independent reference site. No government affiliation or endorsement.