Native plants of the Midwest & Great Lakes
These 116 plants belong to the Midwest & Great Lakes. They were here before the gardens were: they know the weather, live on the rain that falls, and feed the insects and birds that grew up alongside them. Plant a few and your yard starts to fit its place.
Food plants: 59 · Trees: 36 · Shrubs: 26 · Vines, herbs and groundcovers: 54
Fruit trees (2)
- American persimmon · zones 4–9
- Pawpaw · zones 5–8
Berries and small fruit (5)
- Aronia · zones 3–8
- Cranberry · zones 2–7
- Elderberry · zones 3–9
- Highbush blueberry · zones 4–7
- Serviceberry · zones 4–8
Nut trees (3)
- Black walnut · zones 4–9
- Hazelnut · zones 4–8
- Pecan · zones 6–9
Vines (1)
- Maypop · zones 6–10
Perennial vegetables, greens and herbs (2)
- Stinging nettle · zones 3–10
- Sunchoke · zones 3–9
Native and wild plants (100)
- American basswood · zones 3–8
- American cranberrybush · zones 2–7
- American ginseng · zones 3–8
- American gooseberry · zones 3–6
- American hazelnut · zones 4–9
- American plum · zones 3–8
- American sycamore · zones 4–9
- Anise hyssop · zones 3–8
- Arrowwood viburnum · zones 3–8
- Bald cypress · zones 4–10
- Beaked hazelnut · zones 4–8
- Black cherry · zones 3–9
- Black gum · zones 4–9
- Black huckleberry · zones 3–7
- Black-eyed Susan · zones 3–9
- Blue vervain · zones 3–8
- Blue wild indigo · zones 3–9
- Bur oak · zones 3–8
- Butterfly milkweed · zones 3–9
- Butternut · zones 3–7
- Buttonbush · zones 4–10
- Cardinal flower · zones 3–9
- Carolina rose · zones 4–9
- Cattail · zones 3–10
- Chickasaw plum · zones 5–9
- Chokecherry · zones 2–7
- Common juniper · zones 2–7
- Common sunflower · zones 2–11
- Culver's root · zones 3–8
- Dense blazing star · zones 3–9
- Eastern red cedar · zones 2–9
- Eastern redbud · zones 4–9
- Eastern white pine · zones 3–8
- Fireweed · zones 2–7
- Flowering dogwood · zones 5–9
- Foxglove beardtongue · zones 3–8
- Golden Alexanders · zones 3–8
- Goldenrod · zones 3–9
- Goosefoot (pitseed) · zones 3–10
- Groundnut (hopniss) · zones 3–10
- Hackberry · zones 2–9
- Ironweed · zones 4–9
- Joe Pye weed · zones 4–9
- Lanceleaf coreopsis · zones 4–9
- Leadplant · zones 2–8
- Little bluestem · zones 3–9
- Lowbush blueberry · zones 2–6
- Mountain mint · zones 3–8
- Nannyberry · zones 2–8
- Native honeyberry (mountain fly honeysuckle) · zones 2–6
- New England aster · zones 3–8
- New Jersey tea · zones 4–8
- Ninebark · zones 2–8
- Nodding onion · zones 3–9
- Northern red oak · zones 4–8
- Northern white cedar (arborvitae) · zones 2–7
- Ohio spiderwort · zones 4–9
- Pagoda dogwood · zones 3–7
- Paper birch · zones 2–7
- Pennsylvania sedge · zones 3–8
- Pin oak · zones 4–8
- Prairie dropseed · zones 3–9
- Prairie smoke · zones 3–7
- Prairie turnip (tipsin) · zones 3–7
- Prickly wild rose · zones 1–6
- Purple prairie clover · zones 3–8
- Quaking aspen · zones 1–7
- Ramps (wild leek) · zones 3–7
- Red maple · zones 3–9
- River birch · zones 4–9
- Riverbank grape · zones 2–8
- Sassafras · zones 4–9
- Shagbark hickory · zones 4–8
- Sideoats grama · zones 3–9
- Silver buffaloberry · zones 2–7
- Smooth sumac · zones 2–9
- Spicebush · zones 4–9
- Staghorn sumac · zones 3–8
- Sugar maple · zones 3–8
- Sumpweed (marsh elder) · zones 4–9
- Swamp milkweed · zones 3–8
- Sweet crabapple · zones 4–8
- Switchgrass · zones 4–9
- Thimbleberry · zones 3–8
- Tulip tree · zones 4–9
- Wapato (arrowhead) · zones 3–10
- Washington hawthorn · zones 4–8
- Western sand cherry · zones 3–6
- White oak · zones 3–9
- White spruce (spruce tips) · zones 1–5
- Wild bergamot · zones 3–9
- Wild columbine · zones 3–8
- Wild geranium · zones 3–8
- Wild ginger · zones 3–8
- Wild lupine · zones 3–8
- Wild rice (manoomin) · zones 3–8
- Wild strawberry · zones 3–9
- Wintergreen · zones 3–8
- Witch hazel · zones 3–8
- Yarrow (native) · zones 3–9
Helper plants for soil, wildlife and biomass (3)
- Milkweed · zones 3–9
- Partridge pea · zones 3–9
- Purple coneflower · zones 3–9
Open the natives of Midwest & Great Lakes in the planner
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General guidance, not professional advice. Conditions vary by yard and year; for local specifics ask your county extension office. Never eat a wild plant you cannot identify with certainty. Traditional uses are shared as history, not medical advice. © 2026 Sean Priest · Irie Orchard. Terms & credits · Privacy · Home