Native range
Native plants of North Carolina
76 wild species and 20 plant groups in the BloomsEye library grow wild somewhere in North Carolina, read from Kew's World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS. The 156 garden forms of them are listed apart below, each naming its wild parent.
Showing 1 to 60 of 96 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; North Carolina 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 96 plants, 74 have been checked against outside sources (6 fully verified); 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.
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Recorded across North Carolina
How many of the state's 100 counties record each wild species growing wild, from USDA PLANTS: a plant recorded in many counties is widespread in North Carolina; one recorded in few may be local, or simply under-recorded. A county's absence is not evidence a plant is absent. 73 of the wild species carry a county record here.
- Butterfly Weed
- American Elderberry
- Flowering Dogwood
- Lady Fern
- Red Maple
- Little Bluestem
- Cardinal Flower
- Flava (Yellow Trumpet)
- Trumpet Vine
- Buttonbush
- Christmas Fern
- Mountain Laurel
- Hardy Hibiscus
- Cinnamon Fern
- Royal Fern
- Tulip Tree
- Virginia Sweetspire
- River Birch
- Smooth Hydrangea
- Winterberry
- American Beautyberry
- Blackhaw
- Sweetbay Magnolia
- Switchgrass
- Carolina Rose
- Maidenhair Fern
- Eastern Red Columbine
- Eastern Redbud
- Northern Sea Oats
- Carolina Allspice
- Summersweet
- Carolina Jessamine
- Coast Leucothoe
- Shrubby St. John's Wort
- Goatsbeard
- Bald Cypress
- Bottlebrush Grass
- Drooping Leucothoe
- Ninebark
- Honeylocust
- Wild Ginger
- False Sunflower
- Eastern White Pine
- Annual Phlox
- Lavender Annual Phlox
- Peach Annual Phlox
- Purple Annual Phlox
- Red Annual Phlox
- White Annual Phlox
- Eastern Hemlock
- Fragrant Sumac
- Pennsylvania Sedge
- Dwarf Fothergilla
- Garden Phlox
- Black Chokeberry
- White Wild Indigo
- Sugar Maple
- Staghorn Sumac
- Arrowwood
- Carolina Lupine
- Large Fothergilla
- Mountain Stewartia
- New England Aster
- Blue Indigo
- Purple Coneflower
- Creeping Phlox
- Queen of the Prairie
- Southern Magnolia
- Allegheny Spurge
- Aromatic Aster
- Canby's Mountain Lover
- Cherokee Sedge
- Virginia Bluebells
Garden forms of North Carolina natives
156 garden forms, each a named selection of a species that grows wild in North Carolina and each naming its wild parent. A garden form is not the wild plant, so it is listed here and never counted above.
- Adams Elderberry
- Alba Gayfeather
- Alma Pötschke
- Alpine Carpet Juniper
- Amazing Grace
- Amber Jubilee
- Amethyst Falls Wisteria
- Annabelle
- Appalachian Red
- Aquavita Juniper
- Athena Gold False Sunflower
- Autumn Bride Coral Bells
- Autumn Colors
- Baby Joe Dwarf Joe Pye Weed
- Balmy Purple
- Barbara Ann Climbing Hydrangea
- Bayside Bonito Southern Wax Myrtle
- Berry Heavy
- Berry Poppins
- Berry Scape Aronia
- Blackhawks Big Bluestem
- Blackjack Gold Black-Eyed Susan
- Blaze
- Blue Blaze Viburnum
- Blue Moon Woodland Phlox
- Blue Muffin Viburnum
- Blue Paradise
- Bobee Northern Bayberry
- Bordeaux Dwarf Yaupon Holly
- Brandywine Viburnum
- Bridesmaid Mountain Laurel
- Bright Eyes
- Bronze Wave Coral Bells
- Bubblegum Pink Garden Phlox
- Candy Stripe
- Caramel
- Carol Mountain Laurel
- Carousel Mountain Laurel
- Cheer Drops Arborvitae
- Cherokee Brave
- Cherokee Chief
- Cherokee Princess
- Cherry Berries Wintergreen
- Cherry Brandy
- Citronelle
- Claire Grace
- Cloud Nine
- Coconut Lime
- Color Guard Yucca
- Columnar White Pine
- Coppertina
- Coral Flame
- Crème Brûlée
- Crimson Trumpet
- Danica
- David
- DeGroot's Spire
- Denver Daisy
- Diabolo
- Drummond's Pink
- Dwarf White Pine
- Early Sunrise
- Elf Mountain Laurel
- Emerald Blue
- Emerald Green
- Emerald Pink
- Falling Waters
- Fire Chief
- Flame Thrower
- Forest Pansy
- Gentsch White
- Golden Globe
- Goldilocks
- Goldsturm
- Grand Marshall
- Green Jewel
- Gro-Low Fragrant Sumac
- Hearts of Gold
- Heavy Metal
- Henry's Garnet Sweetspire
- Holmstrup
- Hummingbird
- Incrediball Hydrangea
- Indian Summer
- Invincibelle Spirit II Hydrangea
- Jeana
- Jeddeloh Hemlock
- Laura
- Lavender Twist
- Lemony Lace Elderberry
- Little Devil
- Little Gem Magnolia
- Little Henry Sweetspire
- Luminary Ultraviolet
- Luna Pink Swirl
- Luna White
- Magnus
- Major Wheeler
- Moonbeam
- New England Aster 'Barr's Pink'
- New England Aster 'Harrington's Pink'
- Nicky
- Northwind
- Nugget
- October Skies
- Orange Perfection
- Pardon My Purple
- Patricia Ballard
- Peve Minaret
- Pink Double Delight
- Pink Spire
- PowWow Wild Berry
- Prairie Sun
- Professor Kippenberg
- Purple Beauty
- Purple Dome
- Purple Phlox
- Purple Rooster
- Rainbow Leucothoe
- Rainbow Pillar
- Raydon's Favorite
- Red Sprite
- Red Wings
- Rheingold
- River Mist
- Robert Poore
- Route 66
- Royal White Redbud
- Ruby Falls
- Ruby Spice
- Sarah Mountain Laurel
- Scarlet Flame
- Scarletta Leucothoe
- Shawnee Brave
- Shenandoah
- Sienna Sunset
- Sixteen Candles
- Starfire
- Sugar Buzz Cherry Pops
- Sugar Shack Buttonbush
- Summer Wine
- Techny
- The Rising Sun
- Tiger Eyes Sumac
- Tiny Wine
- Toto Gold
- Twilight Zone
- Vanilla Spice
- Weeping Hemlock
- Weeping White Pine
- White Delight
- White Flame
- White Swan
- Winter Gold
- Winter Red
- Zagreb
Plant groups native to North Carolina
20 plant groups sold under one name whose wild species grow in North Carolina; the count beside each is how many of its wild species the record finds in the state.
Keep exploring
Growing natives in North Carolina
This list is the library's cut of North Carolina's flora, not a planting guide. For sources, plant sales and local advice, North Carolina has its own native plant society, the North Carolina Native Plant Society, and its extension office, NC State 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.