State or province

South Dakota

South Dakota, United States of America: 7 ecoregions. Each with its climate now and toward 2050, and its conservation tier.

Landscape and climate

Seven ecoregions reach South Dakota and six of them are grassland systems. They are the Northern Shortgrass prairie and Western shortgrass prairie in the west, the Central Tallgrass prairie and Northern Tallgrass prairie in the east, the Nebraska Sand Hills mixed grasslands in the south, and the Canadian Aspen forests and parklands in the north. The South Central Rockies forests cover the Black Hills. Four are in the Nature Imperiled tier. The Black Hills are the anomaly worth knowing, an isolated forested uplift surrounded by plains, carrying conifers and a flora with no connection to the grassland around it. Everywhere else, prairie is the answer, with the Missouri River roughly marking where wetter tallgrass gives way to drier shortgrass.

Native plants of South Dakota

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

American basswood American elderberry American hazelnut American hophornbeam American plum American red raspberry Anise hyssop Aromatic aster Big bluestem Black walnut Black-eyed Susan Bloodroot Blue grama Blue vervain Boneset Boxelder Bur oak Butterfly weed Canada anemone Canada goldenrod Chokecherry Common blue violet Common hackberry Common hops Common juniper Common ninebark Common sunflower Common yarrow Creeping juniper Cutleaf coneflower Eastern cottonwood Eastern red cedar Foxglove beardtongue Golden alexanders Golden currant Gray dogwood Groundnut Honey locust Idaho fescue Indian grass Lady fern Little bluestem Lodgepole pine Nannyberry Narrow-leaved coneflower New England aster Northern maidenhair fern Ostrich fern Plains coreopsis Ponderosa pine Prairie dropseed Prairie ironweed Prairie smoke Pussy willow Quaking aspen Ramps Red-osier dogwood Rocky Mountain juniper Side-oats grama Silver maple Smooth blue aster Soapweed yucca Spotted Joe-Pye weed Stiff goldenrod Sugar maple Sunchoke Swamp milkweed Switchgrass Western sword fern Whorled milkweed Wild bergamot Wild geranium Wild strawberry

Country

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United States of America

Ecoregions here

Canadian Aspen forests and parklands Central Tallgrass prairie Nebraska Sand Hills mixed grasslands Northern Shortgrass prairie Northern Tallgrass prairie South Central Rockies forests Western shortgrass prairie