Native range
Native plants of South Dakota
105 wild species and 16 plant groups in the BloomsEye library grow wild somewhere in South Dakota, read from Kew's World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS. The 70 garden forms of them are listed apart below, each naming its wild parent.
Showing 1 to 60 of 121 plants
How this list is made
Derived from each plant's native-range record, checked against Kew's World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS with every decision on a ledger; South Dakota is read off the record's own range, and the order is how many of the state's counties record each plant, as stored in the BloomsEye library, which was written with AI assistance. Of these 121 plants, 107 have been checked against outside sources; the rest have not been checked yet, and each plant's own page says which. The cards are AI-generated illustrations.
Range data from the World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 4.0, adapted) and USDA PLANTS. How the native range is credited.
Foliage
Foliage
Recorded across South Dakota
How many of the state's 66 counties record each wild species growing wild, from USDA PLANTS: a plant recorded in many counties is widespread in South Dakota; one recorded in few may be local, or simply under-recorded. A county's absence is not evidence a plant is absent. 99 of the wild species carry a county record here.
- Mexican Hat
- Chokecherry
- Leadplant
- Common Blue Grama Grass
- Sunflower
- Switchgrass
- Dotted Blazing Star
- Sideoats Grama
- Purple Prairie Clover
- Prairie Junegrass
- Little Bluestem
- Bur Oak
- Golden Currant
- Swamp Milkweed
- Whorled Milkweed
- Showy Milkweed
- Common Milkweed
- Aromatic Aster
- Wild Bee Balm
- Long-Beaked Sedge
- Western Serviceberry
- Buffalograss
- False Sunflower
- Smooth Blue Aster
- Smooth Solomon's Seal
- Redosier Dogwood
- Smooth Sumac
- Common Black-Eyed Susan
- Indiangrass
- Common Hackberry
- Eastern Red Columbine
- Rubber Rabbitbrush
- American Hophornbeam
- Golden Alexanders
- Spotted Joe Pye Weed
- Prairie Smoke
- American Linden
- Nannyberry Viburnum
- Quaking Aspen
- Great Blue Lobelia
- Silver Maple
- American Elderberry
- Anise Hyssop
- Common Sneezeweed
- Common Blanketflower
- Eastern Red Cedar
- Gray-Headed Coneflower
- New England Aster
- Nodding Onion
- Common Pussy Willow
- Rosy Sedge
- Common Snowberry
- Creeping Oregon Grape
- Kinnikinnick
- Ninebark
- Paper Birch
- Purple Lovegrass
- Sensitive Fern
- American Hazelnut
- Bristleleaf Sedge
- Butterfly Weed
- False Solomon's Seal
- Honeylocust
- Potentilla
- Prairie Dropseed Grass
- Sugar Maple
- Bunchberry
- Lady Fern
- Pennsylvania Sedge
- Virginia Creeper
- Zigzag Goldenrod
- American Cranberrybush Viburnum
- Blue Wood Aster
- Culver's Root
- Kentucky Coffeetree
- Ostrich Fern
- Red Elderberry
- Alderleaf Mountain Mahogany
- Bottlebrush Grass
- Flava (Yellow Trumpet)
- Trumpet Vine
- Tufted Hairgrass
- Wild Ginger
- Woodland Phlox
- Alkali Sacaton
- Apricot Lisianthus
- Blue Lisianthus
- Cream Lisianthus
- Fragrant Sumac
- Idaho Fescue
- Lisianthus
- Maidenhair Fern
- Picotee Lisianthus
- Pink Lisianthus
- Prairie Blazing Star
- Rose Lisianthus
- Western Sword Fern
- White Lisianthus
- Wild Geranium
Garden forms of South Dakota natives
70 garden forms, each a named selection of a species that grows wild in South Dakota and each naming its wild parent. A garden form is not the wild plant, so it is listed here and never counted above.
- Abbotswood
- Alma Pötschke
- Alpine Carpet Juniper
- Amber Jubilee
- Aquavita Juniper
- Arctic Fire Red Twig Dogwood
- Arctic Fire Yellow Dogwood
- Athena Gold False Sunflower
- Autumn Beauty
- Autumn Colors
- Bailey Compact American Cranberrybush
- Bar Harbor Juniper
- Black Hills Spruce
- Blackhawks Big Bluestem
- Blaze
- Blonde Ambition Blue Grama Grass
- Blue Arrow Juniper
- Blue Chip Juniper
- Blue Moon Woodland Phlox
- Blue Rug Juniper
- Cherry Brandy
- Claire Grace
- Compact Andorra Juniper
- Coppertina
- Crimson Trumpet
- Dakota Burgundy Beardtongue
- Denver Daisy
- Deschampsia Goldtau Grass
- Diabolo
- Dwarf Alberta Spruce
- Giant Sunflower
- Goldfinger
- Goldilocks
- Gro-Low Fragrant Sumac
- Happy Face Yellow
- Heavy Metal
- Indian Summer
- Lemon Queen
- Lemony Lace Elderberry
- Little Devil
- Mammoth
- Mango Tango
- McKay's White
- Moulin Rouge
- New England Aster 'Barr's Pink'
- New England Aster 'Harrington's Pink'
- Northwind
- Nugget
- October Skies
- Orange Whisper
- Pink Beauty
- Pink Whisper
- Prairie Sun
- Purple Dome
- Raydon's Favorite
- Red Ace
- Regent Serviceberry
- Ring of Fire
- Shenandoah
- Skyrocket Juniper
- Snow Flurry
- Soraya
- Strawberry Blonde
- Summer Wine
- Tangerine
- Teddy Bear
- Tiny Wine
- Toto Gold
- Twilight Zone
- Velvet Queen
Plant groups native to South Dakota
16 plant groups sold under one name whose wild species grow in South Dakota; the count beside each is how many of its wild species the record finds in the state.
Keep exploring
Growing natives in South Dakota
This list is the library's cut of South Dakota's flora, not a planting guide. For sources, plant sales and local advice, South Dakota has its own native plant society, the Great Plains Native Plant Society, and its extension office, SDSU Extension; both are linked below and neither is connected to BloomsEye.
Native to your own county
This page is the whole state. In the free garden planner, enter your ZIP and Garden Check lists these same plants for your location, marks the ones recorded growing wild in your county, and places any of them in your plan; its Browse tab answers for any of the 65 states, provinces and territories with no account.
Design your garden
Drop plants onto a 3D plan, see how they fill in, and watch the whole garden bloom across the year.