Native range
Native plants of South Dakota
33 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 68 garden forms of them are listed apart below, each naming its wild parent.
49 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 49 plants, 34 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.
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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. 33 of the wild species carry a county record here.
- Sunflower
- Switchgrass
- Little Bluestem
- Aromatic Aster
- False Sunflower
- Eastern Red Columbine
- Prairie Smoke
- American Elderberry
- Anise Hyssop
- New England Aster
- Ninebark
- Butterfly Weed
- Honeylocust
- Potentilla
- Sugar Maple
- Bunchberry
- Lady Fern
- Pennsylvania Sedge
- Ostrich Fern
- Bottlebrush Grass
- Flava (Yellow Trumpet)
- Trumpet Vine
- Wild Ginger
- Apricot Lisianthus
- Blue Lisianthus
- Cream Lisianthus
- Fragrant Sumac
- Lisianthus
- Maidenhair Fern
- Picotee Lisianthus
- Pink Lisianthus
- Rose Lisianthus
- White Lisianthus
Garden forms of South Dakota natives
68 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
- Adams Elderberry
- 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
- Coppertina
- Crimson Trumpet
- Denver Daisy
- 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.