The Most Widespread Native Plants in the US, and Which Are Worth Planting

Recorded everywhere

Of the 16,336 native species that appear on at least one county list here, a handful turn up in well over half of all 3,051 counties. These are the plants a newcomer to native gardening is most likely to find in their own county list:

• Canadian horseweed (Conyza canadensis) - recorded in 2,071 counties
• Common yarrow (Achillea millefolium) - recorded in 1,996 counties
• Black elderberry (Sambucus nigra) - recorded in 1,959 counties
• Prairie fleabane (Erigeron strigosus) - recorded in 1,881 counties
• Indianhemp (Apocynum cannabinum) - recorded in 1,857 counties
• Boxelder (Acer negundo) - recorded in 1,816 counties
• Annual ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) - recorded in 1,789 counties
• Stickywilly (Galium aparine) - recorded in 1,755 counties
• Common selfheal (Prunella vulgaris) - recorded in 1,745 counties
• Little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) - recorded in 1,737 counties
• American elm (Ulmus americana) - recorded in 1,725 counties
• Blackeyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) - recorded in 1,690 counties

Native does not mean garden-worthy

Canadian horseweed, Annual ragweed, Stickywilly are native and widespread precisely because they colonise disturbed ground fast. Annual ragweed is a major hay-fever pollen source. A county list is a record that a plant grows wild there, not advice to plant it, and the starter lists on county pages lean toward plants USDA rates for the chosen spot rather than whatever is most common. The longest county lists here, San Bernardino County, California (2,019 natives), Plumas County, California (1,841 natives), Coconino County, Arizona (1,812 natives), run far past this short list, and a short list elsewhere usually reflects survey effort.

The widespread natives that do suit gardens

Several of the most-recorded plants are long-standing garden and restoration staples: Common yarrow, Black elderberry, Common selfheal, Little bluestem, Blackeyed Susan. Because they grow across most of the country, they are a safe first purchase almost anywhere - but check your own county page, since some of them carry the native-and-introduced caveat.