U.S. Botanic Garden Opens State Flowers Exhibit in Washington Through October 2026

S. , opened a new exhibit featuring state flowers, available through October 12, 2026. S.

Territories. Experts showcased over a dozen burgeoning blossoms during a tour on the opening day. Oregon’s state flower, the Oregon grape (Berberis aquifolium), is not a true grape. Its roots and stems possess medicinal properties.

“Compounds from the Oregon grape have been used to treat bleeding, arthritis, and tuberculosis,” said Lisa Philander, the garden’s deputy executive director and a medicinal plant expert. Minnesota’s state flower is the pink and white lady’s slipper orchid (Cypripedium reginae), the only state flower that is an orchid. It grows only in areas that experience really cold winters.

Picking the lady’s slipper orchid in the wild is illegal. Maine’s state flower is the white pine cone and tassel, which does not actually have flowers. “Probably the oddest selection of state and territory flowers is the state of Maine, which chose the white pine cone and tassel,” said Susan Pell, the garden’s executive director.

” The eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) stands as the tallest conifer in the Northeastern United States. It has been crucial to Maine’s economy since at least the 17th century. Maine adopted the white pine cone and tassel as its floral emblem in 1895, and it appears on Maine license plates.

Different flowers will bloom at varying times throughout the exhibit’s run. –based artist Emily Paluska. Underneath the paper flowers, visitors can flip through books of preserved specimens. “Researchers collected the flora to take a snapshot in time of what plants were occurring in a certain area,” said Susan Pell.

The dried specimens provide rich data to understand the impacts of climate change, development, and invasive species on the range of native plants. Many plants in the United States are moving north as Earth’s average temperature rises, Pell stated. Plants are also moving higher in elevation.

In some states, if plants can’t move any higher, they die out. “We’re also seeing them move higher in elevation,” Pell said. ” Just before the exhibit opened, Georgia updated its official flower from the Cherokee rose (Rosa laevigata) to the sweetbay magnolia (Magnolia virginiana).

The Cherokee rose is an introduced species from Asia.