Arkansas: the native trees and shrubs we grow
Pick a state and see which of the 364 trees and shrubs we grow are recorded growing wild there, by the USDA PLANTS Database. Some of our trees have spread well beyond their native range. Those count as native only in the states their original range reaches, and elsewhere they are listed apart with their page's own sentence. A state record is a start, not a verdict on your ground. The planting-site check asks about the location itself.
Native and recorded in Arkansas
176 of our 364 trees and shrubs are native to Arkansas
Recorded there by the USDA PLANTS Database, and native there by the rules below.
PLANTS has no record of Three-flower Hawthorn and Upland Swamp Privet in Arkansas. NatureServe places them there.
Native here does not mean hardy where you are. Each card gives its zones, and the ZIP code tool finds yours.
44 large trees
21 medium trees
51 small trees
60 shrubs
Recorded in Arkansas
Native only to part of the country
PLANTS records these growing wild in Arkansas, but their native range does not reach it. Each has spread here from planting or rests on an old or mistaken record. The sentence under each gives its native range or the reason.
Sourwood Oxydendrum arboreum
It grows wild from southwest Pennsylvania, southern Ohio and Indiana south to Louisiana and northwest Florida, and east to the Atlantic coast from southern Virginia to central North Carolina, up to about 5,000 feet.
Bristly Locust (Rose Locust) Robinia hispida
It grows wild in the mountains from Virginia to Kentucky and south to Georgia and Alabama, in open woods, on mountain slopes and on sand hills, and it has spread far beyond that range.
Longleaf Pine Pinus palustris
It has also been recorded in Arkansas, where it is not native and may have been planted.
Southern Magnolia Magnolia grandiflora
It grows wild on the Coastal Plain from southeastern North Carolina to central Florida and west to eastern Texas. Birds carry its seed from planted trees, and it now grows wild well north and inland of that range.
Carolina Laurelcherry Prunus caroliniana
Most inland stands, as in Arkansas, grew from garden plants spread by birds, and now and then it escapes in California.
Southern Catalpa Catalpa bignonioides
Its native ground is the Gulf coastal plain, from southwest Georgia and the Florida panhandle west through Alabama and Mississippi to Louisiana. After three centuries of planting it grows wild across most of the East.
Scentless Mock Orange Philadelphus inodorus
It is native from Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky south to Florida and Mississippi, and it grows wild as an introduced plant in many states to the north and west.
181 of our trees and shrubs are not recorded in Arkansas
Not recorded growing wild there by PLANTS. Many still grow well there when planted: hardiness, soil and sun decide that, not the state line. Each page gives the tree's zones.
Alabama Azalea, Alabama Croton, Alderleaf Buckthorn, Allegheny Plum, Allegheny Serviceberry, American Chestnut, American Fly Honeysuckle, American Mountain Ash, Ashe's Magnolia, Atlantic White Cedar, Bartram's Serviceberry, Beach Plum, Beaked Hazelnut, Bear Huckleberry, Bear Oak (Scrub Oak), Bigleaf Witch Hazel, Blue Ridge St. John's-wort, Bluff Oak, Bog Spicebush, Bottlebrush Buckeye, Box Huckleberry, Boynton Oak, Bracted Arrowwood, Broom Crowberry, Buckwheat Tree, Canada Buffaloberry, Canada Plum, Canada Yew, Carolina Bog Laurel, Carolina Hemlock, Carolina St. John's-wort, Catawba Rhododendron, Catberry, Chapman Oak, Chapman's St. John's-wort, Chestnut Oak, Chinese Chestnut, Cinnamon Clethra, Clammy Locust, Climbing Fetterbush, Clusterspike Indigobush, Coastal Azalea, Conjurer's-nut, Corkwood, Creeping Blueberry, Creeping Juniper, Cumberland Azalea, Cumberland Rosemary, Dahoon, Dangleberry, Devilwood, Dwarf Live Oak, Dwarf Tupelo, Dwarf Witch Alder, Fevertree, Flag Pawpaw, Flame Azalea, Florida Anise, Florida Bully, Florida Flame Azalea, Florida Leucothoe, Florida Swamp Privet, Florida Torreya, Florida Willow, Florida Yew, Four-petal Pawpaw, Franklin Tree, Fraser Fir, Fraser Magnolia, Georgia Bully, Georgia Indigobush, Georgia Oak, Georgia Plume, Godfrey's Swamp Privet, Golden Heather, Golden St. John's-wort, Gray Birch, Hairy Blueberry, Hairy Laurel, Harbison's Hawthorn, Hobblebush, Honeycup, Laurel Oak, Little Walnut, Littleleaf Buckbrush, Live Oak, Lloyd's St. John's-wort, Loblolly Bay, Long-stalked Holly, May White Azalea, Mayhaw, Miccosukee Gooseberry, Michaux's Sumac, Minnie-bush, Mountain Bush-honeysuckle, Mountain Camellia (Mountain Stewartia), Mountain Doghobble, Mountain Fetterbush, Mountain Indigobush, Mountain Laurel, Mountain Maple, Mountain Sweetbells, Mountain Winterberry, Myrtle Dahoon, Myrtle Oak, Nannyberry, Nantucket Serviceberry, Netted Pawpaw, Northern Bayberry, Northern Pin Oak, Northern White Cedar, Oconee Azalea, Odorless Bayberry, Ogeechee Tupelo, Oglethorpe Oak, Painted Buckeye, Piedmont Rhododendron, Pin Cherry, Pinkshell Azalea, Pinxterbloom Azalea, Piratebush, Plateau Live Oak, Plumleaf Azalea, Pond Cypress, Pond Pine, Pondspice, Pygmy Fringetree, Red Elderberry, Red Hills Azalea, Red Osier Dogwood, Red Spruce, Rhodora, Rosebay Rhododendron, Roundleaf Dogwood, Roundleaf Serviceberry, Runner Oak, Sand Myrtle, Sand Pine, Sandhill Oak, Sarvis Holly, Schwerin's Indigobush, Scrub Hickory, Scrub Plum, Seaside Alder, Shadblow Serviceberry, Silky Dogwood, Silverleaf Hydrangea, Slimleaf Pawpaw, Smooth Winterberry, Smooth-bark St. John's-wort, Southern Bush-honeysuckle, Southern Pawpaw, Southern Shagbark Hickory, Spruce Pine, Squashberry, Staghorn Sumac, Striped Maple, Swamp Doghobble, Swamp White Oak, Sweet Azalea, Sweet Birch (Black Birch), Sweet Pepperbush (Summersweet), Sweetshrub, Table Mountain Pine, Tamarack, Texas Red Oak, Titi, Tough Bully, Toughleaf Dogwood, Turkey Oak, Virginia Spiraea, Walter's Viburnum, Weeping Hawthorn, White Wicky, Wild Black Currant, Woolly Beach Heather, Woolly Huckleberry, Woolly Pawpaw, Yellow Anise, Yellow Birch, Yellow Buckeye
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For Cherrybark Oak, Wye Island line, Swamp Chestnut Oak, select line, Black Gum (Tupelo), American Basswood (Linden), Delta Post Oak, Black Locust, Northern Catalpa, Cucumber Magnolia, Kentucky Coffeetree, Bald Cypress, Blue Ash, Northern Pecan: one email per plant when it is priced or back in stock, and nothing else.
How the lists are made
- Recorded in the state. The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service's PLANTS Database, the national standard for plant distribution, records a species in a state when a specimen or a published record places it growing there on its own. The lists hold the trees and shrubs we grow that it records in the state.
- Native there. PLANTS gives native status for a region, the lower 48 states as one, rather than for each state. So a species native to the East that has escaped from planting in a western state is recorded there as native to the region. A tree or shrub counts as native in a state PLANTS gives it as native, unless a narrower range is on record.
- A narrower range. For 95 of our trees and shrubs the records carry the states their native range reaches. They come from the Forest Service's Silvics of North America and range descriptions, NatureServe Explorer's state records, the NRCS plant guides, the Biota of North America Program's atlas and the state floras.
- How a state is set apart. A state where NatureServe calls a tree or shrub introduced is set apart when the range on its own page does not reach it. So is a western state where NatureServe has no record of it, far from that range. So is a state clearly outside the native range that Silvics of North America gives.
- Listed apart. In a state its native range does not reach, a tree or shrub PLANTS records there is listed apart, under a sentence from its page on its range or on the record. Some trees and shrubs have spread far beyond their native range. Black locust, rose locust and the two catalpas have spread the farthest, each into 32 or 33 other states.
- Added from another record. Where the range on a plant page reaches a state PLANTS lacks, the state is added, and its heading names the record that places the tree or shrub there. Bigleaf witch hazel was described in 2006, and PLANTS records it in Alabama and Mississippi only, so its Florida, Georgia and Texas records are NatureServe's. Another 24 trees and shrubs each carry a state or two this way, such as long-stalked holly's Georgia and Tennessee.
- Introduced. A species PLANTS lists as introduced to the region is listed as introduced, not native.
- Not recorded. The rest of our trees and shrubs, which PLANTS does not record growing wild in the state, are named in the fold under the lists. Many still grow well there when planted.
- Your zone. The line under the heading counts the natives rated for the zone this device remembers, by each card's own zones, as the shop's zone filter counts them. Native here does not mean hardy where you are.
- The order. The natives come by mature size, from large trees to shrubs. Within each size, Featured is the shop's own order.
A state line is a surveyor's line. A species recorded in the next state, on the same river and the same soil, belongs on your ground as much as anything on this list, and one recorded in your state may be native only to a corner of it. Why the range maps are wrong goes through the errors every range map carries and what to trust instead: herbarium records, state atlases and your own eyes. Each plant page states the native range in words, from the Forest Service's silvics and the state extension services.
Sources: USDA, NRCS. The PLANTS Database (https://plants.usda.gov), state records read on 2026-09-23. National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC USA. NatureServe. 2026. NatureServe Explorer (https://explorer.natureserve.org), state records read on 2026-10-05. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia. Burns, R. M. and B. H. Honkala, technical coordinators. 1990. Silvics of North America. Agriculture Handbook 654. USDA Forest Service, Washington, DC.