(Image credit: Kanokwalee Pusitanun)
Landscaping with native plants has become increasingly important as more people seek sustainability, as well as low maintenance and wildlife friendly plants. Native plants are well adapted to the climate and soil and provide the food and nesting sites needed by local wildlife.
Native plants have survived for generations without supplemental water, fertilizers, or soil amendments. Many are showy, and provide a natural, pleasing look to the backyard landscape.
Gardening With Native Plants of the South
Whether you are adding native plants among your cultivated perennials, shrubs and trees, or are planting a wildlife garden or pollinator garden, or even a wildflower meadow, here are the best native plants for the Southern gardens of Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
Oklahoma Native Plants
- Amsonia hubrichtii - Arkansas bluestar
- Aquilegia canadensis - eastern columbine
- Asclepias tuberosa – butterfly weed
- Baptisia australis - blue false indigo
- Baptisia sphaerocarpa - yellow wild indigo
- Callirhoe involucrate - purple poppy mallow
- Camassia scilloides - wild hyacinth
- Coreopsis palmata - prairie coreopsis
- Echinacea pallida - pale coneflower
- Echinacea paradoxa - yellow coneflower
- Echinacea purpurea - purple coneflower
- Eryngium yuccifolium - rattlesnake master
- Euphorbia cyathophora - fire-on-the-mountain
- Eutrochium purpureum (syn. Eupatorium purpureum) - sweet Joe Pye weed
- Gaillardia pulchella - Indian blanket
- Helianthus maximiliani - Maximilian’s sunflower
- Liatris pycnostachya - prairie blazing star
- Rudbeckia subtomentosa - sweet black-eyed Susan
- Salvia azurea - blue sage
- Spigelia marilandica - Indian pink
- Symphyotrichum novae-angliae - New England aster
- Tradescantia bracteata - prairie spiderwort
Texas Native Plants
- Acacia schaffneri – Twisted acacia
- Agave americana – Century plant
- Andropogon gerardii var. gerardii – Big bluestem
- Cephalanthus occidentalis – Common buttonbush
- Chamaecrista fasciculata – Partridge pea
- Conoclinium spp. – Mist flower
- Cordia boissieri – Mexican olive
- Gaillardia pulchella – Indian blanket
- Helianthus annuus – Common sunflower
- Hibiscus cardiophyllus – Heart-leaf hibiscus
- Ilex vomitoria - Yaupon
- Lantana urticoides – Texas lantana
- Lesquerella spp. - Bladderpods
- Ratibida columnifera - Mexican hat
- Rudbeckia hirta - Brown-eyed Susan
- Ruellia nudiflora - Wild petunia
- Schizachyrium scoparium – Little bluestem
- Sphaeralcea lindheimeri – Woolly globemallow
- Verbesina microptera – Frostweed
- Yucca treculeana – Spanish dagger
- Zanthoxylum fagara – Lime prickly-ash
Arkansas Native Plants
- Aesculus glabra - Ohio Buckeye
- Amorpha canescens - Leadplant
- Andropogon gerardii - Big Bluestem
- Asclepias tuberosa - Butterflyweed
- Bignonia capreolata - Crossvine
- Callicarpa americana - American Beautyberry
- Castilleja coccinea - Indian Paintbrush
- Ceanothus americanus - New Jersey Tea
- Clematis pitcheri - Purple Leatherflower
- Coreopsis grandiflora - Common coreopsis
- Cornus drummondii - Roughleaf Dogwood
- Echinacea pallida - Pale Purple Coneflower
- Echinacea paradoxa - Yellow Coneflower
- Echinacea purpurea - Purple Coneflower
- Eutrochium fistulosum - Joe-pye Weed
- Gaillardia pulchella - Indian Blanket
- Ilex decidua - Possumhaw
- Liatris punctata - Dotted Blazing Star
- Lonicera sempervirens - Coral Honeysuckle
- Passiflora incarnata - Passion vine
- Penstemon grandiflorus - Large Penstemon
- Ratibida pinnata - Grayhead Coneflower
- Sambucus nigra ssp. Canadensis - Common elderberry
- Viburnum rufidulum - Rusty Blackhaw
Louisiana Native Plants
- Andropogon gerardii - Big Bluestem
- Muhlenbergia capillaries - Gulf Coast Muhly Grass
- Panicum virgatum - Switchgrass
- Schizachyrium scoparium - Little Bluestem
- Amsonia tabernaemontana - Eastern Bluestar
- Asclepias tuberosa – Butterflyweed
- Baptisia sphaerocarpa - Wild Yellow Indigo
- Chamaecrista fasciculata - Partridge Pea
- Echinacea purpurea - Purple Coneflower
- Eryngium yuccifolium - Rattlesnake Master
- Hibiscus coccineus - Scarlet Rosemallow
- Liatris pycnostachya - Kansas Blazing Star
- Oligoneuron nitidum - Shiny Goldenrod
- Physostegia intermedia - Slender False-Dragonhead
- Rudbeckia grandiflora - Rough Coneflower
- Salvia azurea - Blue Sage
- Symphyotichum lateriflorum - Calico Aster
Mississippi Native Plants
- Aesculus pavia – Red Buckeye
- Amsonia tabernaemontana – Eastern bluestar
- Aquilegia canadensis – Eastern red columbine
- Asclepias tuberosa – Butterflyweed
- Asimina triloba – Pawpaw
- Bignonia capreolata – Crossvine
- Callicarpa americana – American beautyberry
- Calycanthus floridus – Caroline allspice
- Catalpa bignonioides – Southern catalpa
- Coreopsis lanceolata – Lanceleaf coreopsis
- Dracopis amplexicaulis – Clasping coneflower
- Echinacea pallida – Pale coneflower
- Echinacea purpurea – Purple coneflower
- Eupatoriadelphus fistulosus – Joe-Pye Weed
- Gaillardia pulchella – Indian blanket
- Gelsemium sempervirens – Carolina jessamine
- Glandularia canadensis – Rose vervain
- Hibiscus coccineus – Texas star hibiscus
- Iris brevicaulis – Zigzag iris
- Kosteletzkya virginica – Seashore mallow
- Liatris elegans – Blazing star
- Lindera benzoin – Spicebush
- Lobelia cardinalis – Cardinal flower
- Lonicera sempervirens – Trumpet honeysuckle
- Penstemon digitalis – Smooth white beardtongue
- Phlox divaricata – Blue woodland phlox
- Polystichum acrostichoides – Christmas fern
- Ratibida columnifera – Mexican hat
- Stokesia laevis – Stokes aster