STATE FLOWER
Iowa's State Flower: Wild Prairie Rose
Iowa's state flower is the wild prairie rose (Rosa arkansana), adopted in 1897 after the state senate consulted the Iowa Federation of Women's Clubs.
A Rose Celebrated in Verse
When the Iowa legislature adopted the resolution naming the wild rose the state flower, Major S. H. M. Byers marked the occasion with an original poem honoring it — a reminder of how much civic ceremony once surrounded these floral designations. The rose itself is low-growing and hardy, spreading naturally across Iowa's native prairie in shades of pink.
QUICK FACT
North Dakota also claims a wild prairie rose as its state flower, reflecting how widespread this hardy native rose is across the northern Great Plains.
