The Central Tallgrass Prairie — the historical core of the North American grassland biome, covering Iowa, northern Missouri, Illinois west of the Indiana hardwood line, eastern Kansas, eastern Nebraska, and the southern parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Big bluestem, Indiangrass, switchgrass, and side-oats grama on the dominant matrix; the deep-rooted forb diversity (Echinacea, Liatris, Silphium, Baptisia, Asclepias) underpins much of the modern native-plant-garden palette. Less than 4% of the original tallgrass remains; conservation collections matter disproportionately.

At a glance

About the temperate grasslands, savannas & shrublands biome

Temperate prairies, steppes, and pampas of grasses and forbs with few trees, under continental climates of hot summers and cold winters. Their deep, fertile soils have made them among the most extensively converted biomes for agriculture.

National refinement sub-regions

What's native here

Catalog plants whose Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center native-distribution range overlaps the 7-state/province roster for this ecoregion. Distinct from the “suited” section below — these are plants that belong here, not just plants that will grow here.

Grain caveat: native here means “native to at least one state / province this ecoregion crosses,” not necessarily native to this ecoregion's specific habitat. A plant tied to wet meadows that crosses Ontario will surface for any Ontario-spanning ecoregion. Finer per-ecoregion native-status data is a future arc.

Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion

Computed from each plant's stated USDA zone range against this ecoregion's USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 (1991-2020 climatology) via ArcGIS FeatureServer published current zone range, with the CHELSA mid-century warming delta applied for the projection. Plants whose stated range falls outside both the current and projected zone end up dropped; the rest land in one of the three buckets below.

Wildlife your native plants here support

Collections for this ecoregion

Curated multi-plant collections whose members all fit this ecoregion's zone range — no won't-grow members smuggled in. Overall fit class shown per collection is the weakest link across its members.

Related ecoregions