EPA Level III Ecoregion
Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains
1138 native plants for the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains ecoregion (Grand Rapids area).
The Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana Drift Plains cover the glacial country around Grand Rapids, Lansing, Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor, and South Bend. The glaciers left kettle lakes, low moraines, and a patchwork of oak openings and wet prairie, so soil and drainage can change over a short distance. Natives such as prairie dock, prairie milkweed, and Illinois tick trefoil come from those oak-opening remnants and take full sun with very little watering once established.
Conditions: Sandy to loamy glacial till with kettle lakes and wetlands, 32–38 inches of precipitation, cold snowy winters and warm summers.
Cities and areas: Grand Rapids, Lansing, Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor, South Bend, Elkhart.
1138 Native Plants for the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains
HOA-friendly picks listed first. Pet-safety status varies by species; each plant page shows its sourced ASPCA status. Native range data from vouchered herbarium specimen records and regional native plant society lists.
Purple Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea
Swamp Milkweed
Asclepias incarnata
Little Bluestem
Schizachyrium scoparium
Wild Bergamot
Monarda fistulosa
Cardinal Flower
Lobelia cardinalis
Wild Red Columbine
Aquilegia canadensis
Black-eyed Susan
Rudbeckia hirta
Butterfly Milkweed
Asclepias tuberosa
Dense Blazing Star
Liatris spicata
Common Yarrow
Achillea millefolium
Rattlesnake Master
Eryngium yuccifolium
Blue Lobelia
Lobelia siphilitica
Switchgrass
Panicum virgatum
Golden Alexanders
Zizia aurea
Common Sneezeweed
Helenium autumnale
False Sunflower
Heliopsis helianthoides
Lanceleaf Coreopsis
Coreopsis lanceolata
New Jersey-tea
Ceanothus americanus
Perennial Black-eyed Susan
Rudbeckia fulgida
Nodding Onion
Allium cernuum
Purple Lovegrass
Eragrostis spectabilis
Mallow-rose
Hibiscus moscheutos
Drooping Prairie-coneflower
Ratibida pinnata
Brown-eyed Susan
Rudbeckia triloba
Prairie Dropseed
Sporobolus heterolepis
Blue Woodland Phlox
Phlox divaricata
Culver's Root
Veronicastrum virginicum
Sideoats Grama
Bouteloua curtipendula
Narrowleaf Mountain Mint
Pycnanthemum tenuifolium
Smooth Aster
Symphyotrichum laeve
Whorled Milkweed
Asclepias verticillata
Soft rush
Juncus effusus
Golden Groundsel
Packera aurea
Smooth Spiderwort
Tradescantia ohiensis
Pale Purple Coneflower
Echinacea pallida
Purple Prairie Clover
Dalea purpurea
Spicebush
Lindera benzoin
Michaelmas Daisy
Symphyotrichum novae-angliae
Indiangrass
Sorghastrum nutans
American Fox Sedge
Carex vulpinoidea
Aromatic Sumac
Rhus aromatica
Spotted Geranium
Geranium maculatum
Scarlet Strawberry
Fragaria virginiana
Virginia Mountain-Mint
Pycnanthemum virginianum
Tall Blazing Star
Liatris aspera
Red-osier Dogwood
Cornus sericea
Narrowleaf Blue-eyed Grass
Sisyrinchium angustifolium
Creeping Polemonium
Polemonium reptans
Showing 48 of 1138. Enter your ZIP for the natives matched to your yard.
Fall care in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains
What to do right now for plants commonly grown here. Each links to the full regional care guide for that species, with sources.
- Creek sedge
Fall is a good second planting and dividing window for common wood sedge in Grand Rapids, after summer heat eases and before the ground freezes.
- Whorled milkweed
Fall is when whorled milkweed finishes its bloom and sets seed before Michigan's first hard frost ends the growing season.
- Stiff goldenrod
Fall bloom in Grand Rapids runs from August into the area's average first frost around mid October.
- Prairie goldenrod
Fall is the main show for Missouri Goldenrod around Grand Rapids. It blooms bright yellow roughly from August into September, then fades as nights cool toward the average first frost in mid October.
- Narrowleaf blue eyed grass
Fall in Grand Rapids brings cooling temperatures and the first frosts by early to mid October, which signals the plant to start shutting down for winter.
- Wild quinine
As West Michigan cools into fall, wild quinine winds down and you get to decide how tidy to leave it.
- Northern gayfeather
Fall is when the last blooms fade out and it's a good time to either tidy up the bed or leave the seed heads standing for wildlife.
- Inland sea oats
Fall is the showiest season, foliage turns gold and the seed heads take on a copper bronze color that holds through frost.
- Purple coneflower
Fall is the time to stop deadheading and let seed heads stand. This is also good planting season for new starts.
- Smooth aster
Fall is when smooth aster puts on its show, violet blue flowers loaded with pollinators.
Build a plan for the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains
The Pollinator Patch App turns plants like these into a front-yard plan tuned for the soil, climate, and HOA expectations of the Grand Rapids area.