State or province

Minnesota

Minnesota, United States of America: 5 ecoregions. Each with its climate now and toward 2050, and its conservation tier.

Landscape and climate

Five ecoregions reach Minnesota and four are in the Nature Imperiled tier. The Western Great Lakes forests cover the northeast, the Upper Midwest US forest-savanna transition the center, and three grassland systems hold the west and south: the Northern Tallgrass prairie, the Central Tallgrass prairie, and the Canadian Aspen forests and parklands. Minnesota is where the eastern forest actually ends, and the state contains that boundary rather than sitting on one side of it. That makes the ecoregion a better guide here than almost anywhere. A garden in the northeast is in conifer and hardwood forest country; one in the southwest is on prairie, and the two want very little of the same planting.

Native plants of Minnesota

Species in the catalog recorded as native to Minnesota, each with its climate-fit grade and planting guidance.

Allegheny blackberry American arborvitae American basswood American elderberry American hazelnut American hophornbeam American plum American red raspberry Anise hyssop Aromatic aster Balsam fir Big bluestem Black cherry Black chokeberry Black oak Black walnut Black willow Black-eyed Susan Bloodroot Blue flag iris Blue grama Blue vervain Boneset Boxelder Bur oak Butterfly weed Canada anemone Canada goldenrod Cardinal flower Chinkapin oak Chokecherry Christmas fern Common blue violet Common hackberry Common hops Common juniper Common milkweed Common ninebark Common sunflower Common witch hazel Common yarrow Creeping juniper Cutleaf coneflower Eastern cottonwood Eastern prickly pear Eastern red cedar Eastern white pine Foxglove beardtongue Golden alexanders Gray dogwood Groundnut Honey locust Indian grass Jack pine Lady fern Lanceleaf coreopsis Little bluestem Marginal wood fern Mayapple Nannyberry Narrow-leaved coneflower New England aster New Jersey tea Northern maidenhair fern Northern red oak Ohio buckeye Ostrich fern Pagoda dogwood Paper birch Plains coreopsis Prairie dropseed Prairie ironweed Prairie smoke Pussy willow Quaking aspen Ramps Red maple Red mulberry Red pine Red-osier dogwood River birch Scarlet bee balm Shagbark hickory Side-oats grama Silver maple Smooth blue aster Spotted Joe-Pye weed Stiff goldenrod Sugar maple Sunchoke Swamp milkweed Swamp white oak Sweet Joe-Pye weed Switchgrass Virginia bluebells Virginia iris White oak Whorled milkweed Wild bergamot Wild geranium Wild lupine Wild strawberry Woodland phlox Yellow birch

Country

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United States of America

Ecoregions here

Canadian Aspen forests and parklands Central Tallgrass prairie Northern Tallgrass prairie Upper Midwest US forest-savanna transition Western Great Lakes forests