In many countries you go, you will start to see that many cultures love a certain plant and choose to have art and symbols of it everywhere and its obvious the plant is important and special to them.
Examples are Prickly Pear cactus in Mexico (even on flag), Lotus in Vietnam, Cherry Blossoms in Japan, Olives in Greece, Roses in France, Date Palm Trees in Egypt. Is there a plant that have a special place in American hearts?
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Pot plant.
Idk. The tumbleweed.
California has the biggest trees *ever.* But the whole country is proud of those big darned trees.
Redwood
In San Diego, it’s the Torrey Pine.
I feel like individual states have plants that are special, like our state flowers and state trees. The California poppy is definitely my favorite flower, and it is pretty beloved in our state.
Saguaro cactus!
we dont really have one. we went really in on the animal thing with eagles though
Across the whole country? Nothing that I know of. Maple trees are the thing in Vermont, peach trees in Georgia, magnolias in part of the south. In Oregon, douglas firs are the thing. They’re even on the license plates. However, a bunch of them tried to kill us in the big ice and wind storm a couple months ago, so the relationship is a bit tense at the moment.
bc our climate is so diverse, this is a better question to ask of individual states
Each state has a state flower/plant/tree, with some of them having some pretty significant reverence. Texas has the bluebonnet of course, but also puts a lot of significance on the yellow rose.
Congress actually passed a resolution in the 80s declaring the rose the national flower, and an oak the national tree.
My personal pick for best plant: prairie grass. All of it.
Being such a large country with different climates and terrains, it is impossible to find one plant, tree, or flower that symbolizes the US as a whole.
I’ve never thought about this and cannot come up with an example. Our country is huge and our landscape is diverse.
I’m not sure there’s a plant that’s important to the entire country, because it has too many biomes for the same plants to be everywhere. Here in California, people are extremely attached to our state flower, the golden poppy. I’ve seen plenty of poppy tattoos, for instance.
Where I live, people are also attached to the coast redwood, but they don’t have nearly as wide a habitat range as the poppy, which you can find all over.
Each state in the US has its own. Here in Texas our state plant is the prickly pear cactus. We also like pecan trees.
Oak trees have a pretty good reputation. A classic symbol of permanence, stability, something massive growing from an acorn.
This is something that is very state specific and many states often identity with certain flowers or trees. North Carolina’s is the dogwood and the long leaf pine is also a major symbol.
The only real answer is probably *Cannabis Sativa*
I’ll propose the American Elm, though the American Chestnut is also making a comeback and historically was far more valuable for its wood.
No one has mentioned the Chestnut Tree. Many years ago the American Chestnut Tree was considered the king of the forest since its crown was so much larger than the surrounding trees. It trunks were 10 feet in Diameter and it was called “the Redwood of the East.” Its wood was prized for strength and beauty in furniture making. Its nuts were used in holiday festivities. But Chestnut blight from ***twelve*** imported Chinese Chestnuts essentially destroyed entire ecosystems of the tree, to the point where they are heavily endangered. If you see even a single, undocumented wild tree, it should be reported to the conservation authorities.
It’s cannabis. You see the leaf EVERYWHERE. Clothing, pop culture, billboards in some states.
Yeah each region or state may have a local tree or something that resonates, but across the whole country? It’s the cannabis plant.
Palmetto trees in South Carolina. They were used to build the walls of Fort Moultrie during the Revolutionary War. The British cannonballs bounced off the spongy wood.
The US has so many biomes and climates. No single tree will grow in all 50 states though some oaks are pretty widespread.
Down South they love their magnolias and longleaf pines. In the North we love our spruces, maples and birches. Birches are a pretty revered tree in Minnesota, as many of our Native people would build canoes out of birches. In California they look highly on the redwood trees.
In the Pacific Northwest it’s our giant, gorgeous evergreen trees. The big 3 in western Washington are Douglas fir, cedar, and hemlock.
I don’t thin kwe have one biggies. I can just say growing up in Massachusetts, tapping Maples, lilacs coming out meant spring, Rhubarb, and apples trees were a big deal.
The only one that is a bit revered is out lady slippers that fill the forests. They blossom everywhere and then disappear within a couple weeks.
The symbol of New England is still the White Pine Tree. It’s even on our regional flag.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_New_England
Corn.
You’re not going to see it as art too often it but it is everywhere.
It is in the fuel we use for our cars, it’s in our adhesives and our makeup and our paint. It’s in our electronics and our medicine. There’s a million more uses that I haven’t listed
We are a corn based society