EPA Level III Ecoregion
Western Corn Belt Plains
1151 native plants for the Western Corn Belt Plains ecoregion (Des Moines area).
The Western Corn Belt Plains cover Iowa and stretch into southern Minnesota, eastern Nebraska, and northern Missouri, taking in Des Moines, Omaha, Lincoln, and Cedar Rapids. Under the row crops is some of the deepest, richest soil on earth, built by tallgrass prairie over thousands of years, and the weather runs to cold windy winters and hot humid summers. Natives like blue giant-hyssop, prairie milkweed, and blue wild indigo are what made that soil, and they handle the open exposure of a yard with no mature trees.
Conditions: Deep black prairie loam, 28–38 inches of rain falling mostly in the growing season, cold windy winters, hot humid summers.
Cities and areas: Des Moines, Omaha, Cedar Rapids, Sioux City, Lincoln, Rochester.
1151 Native Plants for the Western Corn Belt 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
Dense Blazing Star
Liatris spicata
Butterfly Milkweed
Asclepias tuberosa
Common Yarrow
Achillea millefolium
Blue Lobelia
Lobelia siphilitica
Rattlesnake Master
Eryngium yuccifolium
Golden Alexanders
Zizia aurea
Switchgrass
Panicum virgatum
Common Sneezeweed
Helenium autumnale
Lanceleaf Coreopsis
Coreopsis lanceolata
False Sunflower
Heliopsis helianthoides
New Jersey-tea
Ceanothus americanus
Nodding Onion
Allium cernuum
Drooping Prairie-coneflower
Ratibida pinnata
Purple Lovegrass
Eragrostis spectabilis
Brown-eyed Susan
Rudbeckia triloba
Prairie Dropseed
Sporobolus heterolepis
Blue Woodland Phlox
Phlox divaricata
Blue Giant-hyssop
Agastache foeniculum
Culver's Root
Veronicastrum virginicum
Sideoats Grama
Bouteloua curtipendula
Showy Goldenrod
Solidago speciosa
Whorled Milkweed
Asclepias verticillata
Inland Sea Oats
Chasmanthium latifolium
Narrowleaf Mountain Mint
Pycnanthemum tenuifolium
Smooth Aster
Symphyotrichum laeve
Golden Groundsel
Packera aurea
Smooth Spiderwort
Tradescantia ohiensis
Soft rush
Juncus effusus
Pale Purple Coneflower
Echinacea pallida
Purple Prairie Clover
Dalea purpurea
Indiangrass
Sorghastrum nutans
American Fox Sedge
Carex vulpinoidea
Red-osier Dogwood
Cornus sericea
Narrowleaf Blue-eyed Grass
Sisyrinchium angustifolium
Tall Blazing Star
Liatris aspera
Scarlet Strawberry
Fragaria virginiana
Coral Honeysuckle
Lonicera sempervirens
Spotted Geranium
Geranium maculatum
Virginia Mountain-Mint
Pycnanthemum virginianum
Blue Grama
Bouteloua gracilis
Aromatic Sumac
Rhus aromatica
Showing 48 of 1151. Enter your ZIP for the natives matched to your yard.
Fall care in the Western Corn Belt Plains
What to do right now for plants commonly grown here. Each links to the full regional care guide for that species, with sources.
- Soapweed yucca
Fall is about letting the plant slow down and dry out before the Des Moines area's first frost, which usually lands sometime in early to mid October.
- Prairie spiderwort
Fall is mostly cleanup season for prairie spiderwort in Des Moines, as it finishes blooming and heads into winter dormancy.
- Scarlet strawberry
Fall is a good time to divide and move runners in the Des Moines area before the ground cools off, and the foliage often turns red before winter.
- Stiff goldenrod
Fall is bloom season in Des Moines, running from August into the area's average first frost in mid October.
- Garden peony
Fall carries the most important seasonal task for garden peony: cutting the foliage down after frost to cut off disease, and for new plantings, deciding whether the bed needs winter mulch.
- Missouri primrose
Fall cleanup matters more for this plant in Iowa than it does in its native range, since wet, decaying foliage sitting on the crown over winter is one of the bigger risks this far north.
- Hosta
Fall is cleanup season. Cutting hostas back after a hard freeze removes the leaf litter that slugs, voles, and disease spores use to overwinter, and it sets the bed up clean for next spring.
- Purple lovegrass
Fall is when purple lovegrass earns its name, with airy reddish purple seed clouds hovering over the foliage from August into October. The seed heads eventually break loose and tumble like a small tumbleweed.
- White prairie clover
Fall is when white prairie clover finishes blooming and sets seed, and it is the best time of year to sow new seed if you want to expand the planting.
- Winecup
As the weather cools, purple poppy mallow slows down and its foliage starts to die back for the year. Fall is also a good window for starting new plants from seed.
Build a plan for the Western Corn Belt Plains
The Pollinator Patch App turns plants like these into a front-yard plan tuned for the soil, climate, and HOA expectations of the Des Moines area.