To better understand plants it’s helpful to understand their taxonomy. The taxonomy of the vascular plants (most of the plants we know) is given below. This list does not include the more primitive algae, mosses, liverworts, and others that do not possess true leaves, stems or roots like vascular plants. It does not include some classes that are not typical of our area like Cycads (palms).
Kingdom Plantae (Plants)
Phylum Tracheophyta (Vascular Plants)
Class Liliopsida (Monocots)
Class Magnoliopsida (Dicots)
Class Pinopsida (Conifers)
Class Polypodiopsida (Ferns)
Order
Family
Genus
Species
Plants of South Dakota
There are thousands of kinds of plants in South Dakota. To make it easier to find them, I’ve created logical groups based on growth habits and taxonomy. Growth habits are the structure of a plant. For example, Tree are woody plants with generally a single trunk. Graminoids are grass-like plants that are composed of grasses, sedges, rushes, cat-tails. All links take you to iNaturalist observations. The observations usually contain pictures and locations of the plants. I’ve included both wild and planted observations, so you can see plants that grow wild as well as plants used in landscaping.
Growth Habits of Plants
Trees of South Dakota Trees generally have a single woody stem known as a trunk. Examples include Ash, Elm, Oak, Cottonwood, and Hackberry.
Shrubs of South Dakota Shrubs generally have multiple woody stems and are shorter than trees. Examples include currants, gooseberry, chokecherry, and raspberries.
Woody Vines of South Dakota Woody vines have a woody stem and climb on other plants or structures. Their trunk cannot support the plant without something for it to climb on. Examples include grape and woodbine.
Graminoids of South Dakota Graminoids are members of the Poales taxonomic order. They are not woody plants. Examples includes grasses, sedges, rushes, and cat-tails.
Taxonomic Grouping of Plants
Conifers of South Dakota Conifers are members of the Pinopsida taxonomic class. They are woody plants that have cones and scale-like or needle-like leaves. Most are evergreen. Examples include pines, spruces, and junipers.
Monocots of South Dakota Monocots have parallel leaf veins and one seed leaf. They are not woody plants. Examples include lilies and grasses. Graminoids are included here but are also displayed in their own link.
Dicots of South Dakota Dicots have branching leaf veins and two seed leaves. They can be woody or herbaceous. Examples include sunflower, roses, and oaks. Many of our trees, shrubs and woody vines are dicots.
Ferns of South Dakota Ferns are plants that reproduce by spores instead of seeds. Yet they have a vascular system that includes stems, leaves and roots.
Lycophytes of South Dakota Lycophytes are a very small group of plants that include quilworts, clubmosses, and spikemosses. They reproduce by spores.
Gingkos of South Dakota Gingkos are an ancient class that only contains one species, Gingko biloba from China.
Taxonomic Groups minus Growth Habits
To make the group more manageable I’ve removed the woody plants from the dicots to give you a list of only herbaceous dicots.
In 1998 I started this website. In 2020 I moved to South Dakota. The site has about 1200 indexed pages of native gardening information, butterfly gardening, papermaking from plants, a plant identification guide, and backyard bird information. In 2024, I updated the site and corrected pages that weren’t loading. The site is available at https://kansasnativeplants.com/.
Since using the South Dakota Plants and Wildlife Facebook Group I’ve noticed lots of people needing help with plant identification. I put together this list of books about the plants of the Northern Plains including the Black Hills. You can purchase these books from Amazon. All links to products are affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. This helps support this site and allows me to continue to add new content. Thank you for the support!
Grassland plants of South Dakota and the Northern Great Plains
If you are in the Black Hills of South Dakota or Wyoming, this is the reference to have. This 1999 version is not readily available on Amazon but you can Download a copy from South Dakota State University.
This sounds like an awesome guide as it covers over 500 species of plants.
Weeds of the Great Plains
Weeds of the Great Plains is a 7″ x 10″ hardbound book for the Great Plains. It covers over 400 species of “weeds” and contains 266 line drawings. Each species account includes a full page photograph along with close ups flowers, fruits, and other details to aid in identification,
For over 100 years, the Audubon Christmas Bird Count (CBC) uses volunteers to track bird populations by holding local counts across North and South America. Counts are held between December 14 and January 5 and are composed of volunteers of all birding levels to count birds in the field and at their feeders. Volunteers count birds and tally them by species within a 15 mile diameter count circle.
The Mitchell circle is centered roughly at the Corn Palace. It encompasses parts of Davison and Hanson counties including the cities of Mitchell and Loomis. The Mitchell count circle can be found at https://arcg.is/1vb44L2.
After a 46 year hiatus, the Mitchell CBC was reinstated in 2013. The first count was executed in 1957. Two more counts were executed in 1966 and 1967.
Count Summary
Barred owl by Sheri Leland
This year’s count took place on Saturday, December 14, 2024 and was the 12th consecutive year to hold the count since reinstatement. This was the first year I never saw any birds at my mom’s bird feeders all day long.
On the day of the count we had foggy conditions all day with freezing drizzle. Day time temperatures started at 25° F and rose to 30° F. The maximum wind speed was 5 mph out of the south. There was no open water other than some moving water.
A total of 17 people participated and all were adults. We had 7 groups of people who birded in the field and 9 groups that watched their feeders. Field groups spent 16 hours in the field observing birds. In comparison the feeder watchers spent 34.25 hours watching birds at their feeders.
We had a total of 1,607 birds composed of 33 species for the count day. Both the total number of birds and number of species were lower than past years. There were an additional 7 count week species. Count week species are seen 3 days before or after the count day but not on the count day. The most abundant species was the rock pigeon at 427.
We added two new species to the count. A pileated woodpecker was seen at a feeder on the edge of Mitchell and a yellow-bellied sapsucker was seen at another feeding station. Some misses included Cooper’s hawk, brown creeper, purple finch, horned lark, and lapland longspur. Both the pileated woodpecker and the yellow-bellied sapsucker were flagged as rare.
The best birds of the count were definitely the pileated woodpecker and the yellow-bellied sapsucker. The barred owl and short-eared owl were also very good additions.
We had no high counts which is not surprising since numbers were low this year.
I’ve composed the following tables: Counts for the Year, Participants for the Year, Counts by Year, and Effort by Year.
Bird Counts for the Year
The following table contains counts for the Mitchell CBC. CW designates count week birds.
Species
Total
Snow Goose
CW
Canada Goose
CW
Wild Turkey
141
Ring-necked Pheasant
86
Rock Pigeon
427
Eurasian Collared-dove
18
Mourning Dove
1
Northern Harrier
2
Sharp-shinned Hawk
CW
Bald Eagle
1
Red-tailed Hawk
1
Rough-legged Hawk
3
buteo sp.
5
Great Horned Owl
1
Barred Owl
CW
Short-eared Owl
CW
yellow-bellied sapsucker
CW
Red-bellied Woodpecker
5
Downy Woodpecker
15
Hairy Woodpecker
10
Pileated woodpecker
1
Northern Flicker
9
woodpecker sp.
1
American Kestrel
1
Northern Shrike
2
Blue Jay
8
American Crow
9
Black-capped Chickadee
15
Red-breasted Nuthatch
3
White-breasted Nuthatch
12
European Starling
223
American Robin
268
Cedar Waxwing
47
House Sparrow
46
House Finch
56
Pine Siskin
16
American Goldfinch
66
American Tree Sparrow
14
Dark-eyed Junco
37
Harris’s Sparrow
2
Red-winged Blackbird
CW
Northern Cardinal
10
passerine sp.
45
Total
1607
Participants for the Year
The Mitchell CBC wouldn’t have been possible without the help of these volunteers.
Full Name
Field
Feeder
Doug Hansen
Field
Jeff Hansen
Field
Rick Hansen
Field
Feeder
Doug Hollum
Feeder
Dee Johnson
Field
Feeder
Dennis Leland
Field
Feeder
Sheri Leland
Field
Feeder
Jacob Leland
Feeder
Derrick Adams
Feeder
Chuck Adams
Feeder
Paula Mazzer
Field
Feeder
Chris Slaybaugh
Field
Feeder
Andrea Meyer
Field
Feeder
Scott Meyer
Field
Feeder
Tim Mullican
Field
Bonnie Orr
Feeder
Lonnie Wiess
Field
Counts by Year
This table contains counts by year for the last 9 years of the Mitchell CBC. Note, zero denotes count week species.
Species
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
Snow Goose
0
7
0
75
0
Cackling Goose
25
Canada Goose
24
0
4
0
211
0
goose sp.
40
Wood Duck
Northern Shoveler
2
Gadwall
2
4
Mallard
40
34
Northern Pintail
Redhead
1
Lesser Scaup
Common Goldeneye
1
10
Common Merganser
204
Ruddy Duck
2
Wild Turkey
162
30
168
215
111
105
210
106
141
Greater Prairie-chicken
3
Ring-necked Pheasant
141
221
34
146
97
261
231
333
86
Rock Pigeon
131
631
55
323
545
128
59
117
427
Eurasian Collared-dove
179
37
35
45
85
70
35
30
18
Mourning Dove
2
0
2
20
1
Ring-billed Gull
0
Great Blue Heron
1
Northern Harrier
1
0
2
2
Sharp-shinned Hawk
2
2
2
3
1
1
1
0
Cooper’s Hawk
2
2
1
1
4
2
Northern Goshawk
2
1
1
Bald Eagle
6
8
1
9
3
10
3
4
1
Red-tailed Hawk
28
21
0
31
26
8
2
1
1
Red-tailed Hawk (Harlan’s)
1
0
Rough-legged Hawk
20
11
1
6
18
37
1
3
buteo sp.
1
1
3
5
Eastern Screech-owl
1
2
6
2
Great Horned Owl
5
7
0
14
10
5
3
1
Snowy Owl
Barred Owl
1
0
Long-eared Owl
Short-eared Owl
1
0
Northern Saw-whet Owl
1
Belted Kingfisher
1
0
yellow-bellied sapsucker
0
Red-bellied Woodpecker
8
5
4
13
9
9
9
10
5
Downy Woodpecker
27
18
9
34
15
30
27
23
15
Hairy Woodpecker
13
11
5
12
10
9
10
6
10
Pileated woodpecker
1
Northern Flicker
27
6
9
12
6
1
1
14
9
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)
6
5
2
4
5
Northern Flicker (red-shafted)
1
woodpecker sp.
1
American Kestrel
6
3
4
4
1
1
Merlin
2
1
3
1
Peregrine Falcon
0
Prairie Falcon
1
1
falcon sp.
1
1
Northern Shrike
1
1
3
6
1
2
Blue Jay
73
37
20
73
70
39
22
14
8
American Crow
15
10
17
32
17
18
5
12
9
Common Raven
Black-capped Chickadee
24
15
11
53
40
78
10
13
15
Tufted Titmouse
Horned Lark
4
368
60
70
220
11
236
Golden-crowned Kinglet
4
3
1
Red-breasted Nuthatch
12
1
2
2
10
8
5
3
White-breasted Nuthatch
20
6
5
22
19
21
16
8
12
Brown Creeper
0
2
1
5
Carolina Wren
0
European Starling
6559
689
47
832
1188
447
135
55
223
Brown Thrasher
1
Eastern Bluebird
5
0
Townsend’s Solitaire
1
5
American Robin
261
118
14
6
204
152
310
71
268
Cedar Waxwing
70
157
84
140
76
45
40
47
House Sparrow
687
809
73
336
277
357
252
70
46
House Finch
49
128
38
27
115
25
75
26
56
Purple Finch
1
0
0
4
15
1
4
Common Redpoll
97
4
2
Red Crossbill
0
3
White-winged Crossbill
1
Pine Siskin
24
12
17
53
1
6
16
American Goldfinch
292
132
18
139
163
75
88
9
66
Lapland Longspur
30
50
20
Snow Bunting
8
3
American Tree Sparrow
456
413
11
49
433
41
20
14
Fox Sparrow
1
Dark-eyed Junco
83
172
50
123
100
60
97
41
37
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)
36
14
28
54
39
9
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon)
8
4
1
1
White-crowned Sparrow
1
2
0
Harris’s Sparrow
1
1
6
11
1
2
2
Song Sparrow
1
1
4
Spotted Towhee
1
Western Meadowlark
6
9
1
14
Red-winged Blackbird
1212
1230
285
106
10122
450
141
125
0
Brown-headed Cowbird
2
13
Rusty Blackbird
19
Common Grackle
20
1
20
blackbird sp.
506
2
Yellow-rumped Warbler
1
1
Northern Cardinal
27
21
6
23
29
12
14
3
10
passerine sp.
23
45
10682
5552
1121
3058
14733
2610
2080
1779
1607
Effort by Year
This table contains effort for all years of the Mitchell CBC.
Count Date
Count Year
Field People
Field Hours All
Feeder People
Feeder Hours
Count Day Species
Count Week Species
Count Species Total
Bird Total
12/23/1957
1957
2
9.00
25
0
25
1377
12/30/1966
1966
1
9.00
20
0
20
463
12/31/1967
1967
1
9.00
20
0
20
2885
12/26/2013
2013
17
52.50
6
13.25
47
2
49
10639
12/26/2014
2014
9
42.75
11
34.25
49
0
49
3560
12/26/2015
2015
20
37.25
14
29.00
49
6
55
4737
12/26/2016
2016
17
48.00
15
32.75
45
0
45
10682
12/26/2017
2017
17
47.00
4
13.00
42
2
44
5552
12/26/2018
2018
9
10.25
5
21.00
32
6
38
1121
12/21/2019
2019
13
47.50
17
29.00
51
2
53
3058
12/26/2020
2020
19
34.00
9
22.75
50
2
52
14733
12/26/2021
2021
17
28.00
11
27.75
38
3
41
2610
12/17/2022
2022
11
17.00
15
40.25
36
1
37
2080
12/16/2023
2023
9
29.75
16
35.25
44
2
46
1780
12/14/2024
2024
9
16.00
15
34.25
33
7
40
1607
Thank You
I’d like to give a big “Thank You” to everyone who helped with the count. This is a GROUP effort. All who participated should be very proud of their work.
If you know anyone who would like to help with the count next year, send me their contact information so they can be included in all communications.
