State or province

Wisconsin

Wisconsin, United States of America: 4 ecoregions. Each with its climate now and toward 2050, and its conservation tier.

Landscape and climate

Four ecoregions reach Wisconsin and the tension-zone line that gardeners here already know runs between them. The Western Great Lakes forests cover the north, the Upper Midwest US forest-savanna transition the center and west, and the Central Tallgrass prairie and Central US forest-grasslands transition reach the south. The two southern systems are in the Nature Imperiled tier. That boundary is a real ecological seam, not a convention: north of it is northern forest with a short season, south of it is prairie and oak savanna country on richer soil. Southern Wisconsin gardens have a strong case for prairie and savanna planting, and northern ones for a forest understory.

Native plants of Wisconsin

Species in the catalog recorded as native to Wisconsin, 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 American sycamore Anise hyssop Aromatic aster Arrowwood viburnum Balsam fir Big bluestem Black cherry Black chokeberry Black oak Black walnut Black willow Black-eyed Susan Blackhaw viburnum Bloodroot Blue false indigo Blue flag iris Blue grama Blue vervain Boneset Boxelder Bur oak Butterfly weed California poppy 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 Dense blazing star Eastern cottonwood Eastern prickly pear Eastern red cedar Eastern white pine Foamflower Fox grape Foxglove beardtongue Golden alexanders Gray dogwood Groundnut Highbush blueberry Honey locust Indian grass Jack pine Lady fern Lanceleaf coreopsis Largeflower tickseed Little bluestem Mapleleaf viburnum Marginal wood fern Mayapple Nannyberry New England aster New Jersey tea Northern maidenhair fern Northern red oak Ohio buckeye Orange coneflower Ostrich fern Pagoda dogwood Pale purple coneflower Paper birch Pawpaw Plains coreopsis Possumhaw viburnum Prairie dropseed Prairie ironweed Prairie smoke Purple coneflower Pussy willow Quaking aspen Ramps Red maple Red mulberry Red pine Red-osier dogwood River birch River oats Sassafras 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 crabapple Sweet Joe-Pye weed Switchgrass Virginia bluebells Virginia iris White oak Whorled milkweed Wild bergamot Wild geranium Wild lupine Wild senna Wild strawberry Yellow birch

Country

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United States of America

Ecoregions here

Central Tallgrass prairie Central US forest-grasslands transition Upper Midwest US forest-savanna transition Western Great Lakes forests