Native Plants for Mississippi

Western Mississippi is defined by the river. The Delta in the northwest is alluvial floodplain, flat and exceptionally fertile, historically bottomland hardwood forest of oak, gum, and cypress, now almost entirely farmed. Soils there are heavy, rich, and slow to drain.

Immediately east, a band of loess bluffs rises above the floodplain. The silt was blown off glacial outwash to the west and piled deep against the bluff line, and it erodes into steep, sharp ravines. The forest on that loess is distinctive, richer than the surrounding pine country, with beech, magnolia, and a diverse understory that includes species disjunct from the Appalachians.

Prairie in a pine state

The Black Belt reaches into eastern Mississippi, bringing the same chalk-derived alkaline clay found in Alabama and the same prairie flora growing on it. The Jackson Prairie in the central part of the state is a second, smaller occurrence.

These alkaline prairie soils are the exception in a state whose default is acidic sand, and gardeners on them should be planting prairie species rather than the usual southeastern acid-soil list.

Piney Woods and the coast

Most of southern Mississippi was longleaf pine savanna over sandy, acidic soil, maintained by fire and carrying a rich sun-loving ground layer. Pitcher plant bogs occur in the wetter flats and are among the more remarkable plant communities in the region.

The Gulf coast adds salt spray, storm surge, and hurricane wind. Native maritime species handle these; most ornamentals do not.

Heat, humidity, and drainage

Mississippi summers are long, hot, and very humid, and rainfall is high. As across the Deep South, fungal disease and waterlogged roots kill more garden plants than drought.

Read the drainage on your site before choosing anything. Delta clay, bluff loess, Black Belt chalk clay, and Piney Woods sand are four genuinely different growing media, and they occur within a couple hours of each other.

Fall planting is the right default, with the long mild autumn giving roots months of growth before summer.

Confirming what is native to your county

The Mississippi Native Plant Society and the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, part of the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, maintain guidance on the state's flora and natural communities. Crosby Arboretum in Picayune is a notable regional resource, built specifically to display the native plant communities of the Pearl River basin.

Sources: Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks (natural communities and heritage program); Crosby Arboretum, Mississippi State University (regional native plant communities); USDA PLANTS Database (native status by state).