Native plants · Texas
Native plants of Upton County
32 plant species are recorded as native to Texas in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Upton County by USDA PLANTS. 17 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.
County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP
Upton County, Texas
PLANTS records only 17 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Texas list is a useful second check.
- Native species
- 32 Typical Texas county: 145 (median of 254 counties)
- Garden-ready natives
- 17 Typical Texas county: 61
- Share by type (all 32 native species)
-
Percent of the 32 native species in each growth type
Wildflowers make up the largest share of the native list (50%), followed by shrubs (19%).
The native plant list
Garden-ready natives 17
Native species with PLANTS growing records (height, light, moisture, minimum temperature). “—” means PLANTS has no value.
| Plant | Type | Height | Light | Water use | Hardy to |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American tarwort Flourensia cernua | Shrub | 3 ft | Sun | Low | Zone 5a |
| Apache plume Fallugia paradoxa | Shrub | 6 ft | Sun | Low | Zone 5a |
| black grama Bouteloua eriopoda | Grass or grass-like | 2 ft | Sun | Low | Zone 5a |
| creosote bush Larrea tridentata | Shrub | 10 ft | Sun | 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 |
| Missouri gourd Cucurbita foetidissima | Vine | 1 ft | Sun | Low | Zone 5a |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| woolly plantain Plantago patagonica | Wildflower (forb) | 6 in | Sun | Low | Zone 12b |
No garden-ready natives match these filters. Try clearing one.
Other native species recorded here 15
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.
Hidden while “Garden-ready only” is on.
- Alabama lipfern Cheilanthes alabamensis
- bigseed alfalfa dodder Cuscuta indecora
- Carolina woollywhite Hymenopappus scabiosaeus
- Dakota mock vervain Glandularia bipinnatifida
- Engelmann's daisy Engelmannia peristenia
- Hopi tea greenthread Thelesperma megapotamicum
- ivyleaf groundcherry Physalis hederifolia
- lanceleaf sage Salvia reflexa
- matted sandmat Chamaesyce serpens
- narrowleaf stoneseed Lithospermum incisum
- purple cliffbrake Pellaea atropurpurea
- scarlet beeblossom Oenothera suffrutescens
- silverleaf nightshade Solanum elaeagnifolium
- Texas vervain Verbena halei
- verrucose seapurslane Sesuvium verrucosum
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.
| Measure | Upton County | Typical county | Statewide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native species | 32 | 145 | 1,683 |
| Garden-ready natives | 17 | 61 | 656 |
| Tree | 0 | — | 164 |
| Shrub | 6 | — | 90 |
| Wildflower (forb) | 16 | — | 877 |
| Grass or grass-like | 6 | — | 431 |
| Vine | 2 | — | 83 |
| Fern | 2 | — | 38 |
Neighboring counties
Counties that share a ZIP code with Upton County.
- Crockett County, TX 53 garden-ready
- Midland County, TX 19 garden-ready
- Pecos County, TX 82 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
- Upton County (county FIPS 48461), Texas. 32 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