Native range
Native plants of Rhode Island
43 wild species and 17 plant groups in the BloomsEye library grow wild somewhere in Rhode Island, read from Kew's World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS. The 111 garden forms of them are listed apart below, each naming its wild parent.
60 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; Rhode Island 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 60 plants, 45 have been checked against outside sources (1 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.
Foliage
Foliage
Foliage
Foliage
Foliage
Foliage
Foliage
Foliage
Foliage
Foliage
Foliage
Foliage
Foliage
Recorded across Rhode Island
How many of the state's 5 counties record each wild species growing wild, from USDA PLANTS: a plant recorded in many counties is widespread in Rhode Island; one recorded in few may be local, or simply under-recorded. A county's absence is not evidence a plant is absent. 38 of the wild species carry a county record here.
- Arrowwood
- Eastern Red Columbine
- Lady Fern
- Red Maple
- Summersweet
- Switchgrass
- Winterberry
- American Elderberry
- Black Chokeberry
- Cardinal Flower
- Christmas Fern
- Cinnamon Fern
- Mountain Laurel
- Northern Blue Flag Iris
- Pennsylvania Sedge
- Royal Fern
- Buttonbush
- Carolina Rose
- Eastern White Pine
- Flowering Dogwood
- Garden Phlox
- Hardy Hibiscus
- Little Bluestem
- Bunchberry
- Butterfly Weed
- Chives
- Maidenhair Fern
- New England Aster
- Ninebark
- Staghorn Sumac
- Arborvitae
- Bottlebrush Grass
- Creeping Phlox
- Eastern Hemlock
- Ostrich Fern
- Shrubby St. John's Wort
- Sugar Maple
- Tulip Tree
Garden forms of Rhode Island natives
111 garden forms, each a named selection of a species that grows wild in Rhode Island and each naming its wild parent. A garden form is not the wild plant, so it is listed here and never counted above.
- Abbotswood
- Adams Elderberry
- Alma Pötschke
- Alpine Carpet Juniper
- Amazing Grace
- Amber Jubilee
- Amethyst Falls Wisteria
- Aquavita Juniper
- Arctic Fire Red Twig Dogwood
- Arctic Fire Yellow Dogwood
- Athena Gold False Sunflower
- Baby Joe Dwarf Joe Pye Weed
- Bailey Compact American Cranberrybush
- Berry Heavy
- Berry Poppins
- Berry Scape Aronia
- Blackhawks Big Bluestem
- Blaze
- Blue Blaze Viburnum
- Blue Muffin Viburnum
- Blue Paradise
- Bobee Northern Bayberry
- Brandywine Viburnum
- Bridesmaid Mountain Laurel
- Bright Eyes
- Bubblegum Pink Garden Phlox
- Candy Stripe
- Carol Mountain Laurel
- Carousel Mountain Laurel
- Cheer Drops Arborvitae
- Cherokee Brave
- Cherokee Chief
- Cherokee Princess
- Cherry Berries Wintergreen
- Claire Grace
- Cloud Nine
- Columnar White Pine
- Coppertina
- Coral Flame
- Danica
- David
- DeGroot's Spire
- Diabolo
- Drummond's Pink
- Dwarf White Pine
- Early Sunrise
- Elf Mountain Laurel
- Emerald Blue
- Emerald Green
- Emerald Pink
- Fire Chief
- Gentsch White
- Golden Globe
- Goldfinger
- Happy Face Yellow
- Heavy Metal
- Holmstrup
- Hummingbird
- Jeana
- Jeddeloh Hemlock
- Laura
- Lemony Lace Elderberry
- Little Devil
- Luminary Ultraviolet
- Luna Pink Swirl
- Luna White
- Major Wheeler
- Mango Tango
- McKay's White
- New England Aster 'Barr's Pink'
- New England Aster 'Harrington's Pink'
- Nicky
- Northwind
- Nugget
- Orange Perfection
- Orange Whisper
- Patricia Ballard
- Pink Beauty
- Pink Spire
- Pink Whisper
- Professor Kippenberg
- Purple Beauty
- Purple Dome
- Purple Phlox
- Rainbow Pillar
- Red Ace
- Red Sprite
- Red Wings
- Rheingold
- Robert Poore
- Ruby Spice
- Sarah Mountain Laurel
- Scarlet Flame
- Shenandoah
- Sixteen Candles
- Snow Flurry
- Starfire
- Sugar Shack Buttonbush
- Summer Wine
- Tangerine
- Techny
- Tiger Eyes Sumac
- Tiny Wine
- Twilight Zone
- Vanilla Spice
- Weeping Hemlock
- Weeping White Pine
- White Delight
- White Flame
- Winter Gold
- Winter Red
Plant groups native to Rhode Island
17 plant groups sold under one name whose wild species grow in Rhode Island; the count beside each is how many of its wild species the record finds in the state.
Keep exploring
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.