The Southeast Iowa Sierra Club has compiled this list of native plants that are recommended for growing in Iowa yards.
Woody Plants
white oak
swamp white oak
shingle oak
pin oak
bur oak
blackjack oak
chinkapin oak
red oak
post oak
black oak
American plum
wild black cherry
chokecherry
pussy willow
prairie willow
black willow
river birch
quaking aspen
white pine
black maple
silver maple
sugar maple
Iowa crabapple
American elm
slippery elm
bitternut hickory
shagbark hickory
American linden
downy hawthorn
cockspur hawthorn
black walnut
American hazelnut
prairie rose
pasture rose
climbing prairie rose
roughleaf dogwood
gray dogwood
downy serviceberry
nannyberry
hophornbeam
Missouri gooseberry
riverbank grape
Herbaceous Plants
zigzag goldenrod
gray goldenrod
stiff goldenrod
showy goldenrod
woodland blue aster
Drummond’s aster
heath aster
smooth blue aster
white panicle aster
New England aster
aromatic aster
sky-blue aster
silky aster
sawtooth sunflower
stiff sunflower
woodland sunflower
sunchoke
wild strawberry
common boneset
lead plant
jumpseed
wild geranium
common violet
woodland sedge
plains oval sedge
oak sedge
Best Herbaceous Pollinator Plants
mountain mint
sweet coneflower
prairie tickseed
common fleabane
common boneset
golden groundsel
wild geranium
bearded beggarticks
purple prairie clover
giant purple hyssop
oxeye false sunflower
hoary verbena
prairie ironweed
golden Alexanders
rattlesnake master
common evening primrose
foxglove beardtongue
pale purple coneflower
sneezeweed
wild bergamot
prairie blazing star