Recommended trees for Minnesota
Trees shade and cool us in the summer, protect us from cold winter winds, supply us with clean air to breathe, beautify our communities and provide habitat for wildlife. Selecting the trees that will survive and grow into healthy forests requires a thorough analysis of the planting site and a careful match of the trees to that environment.
The spread of invasive pest emerald ash borer in Minnesota means that many landowners are looking for alternatives to ash. These recommendations include ash alternatives.
How to use these lists
Minnesota is an ecologically diverse state. For this series of lists, the state is divided into major ecological regions, each with characteristic soils, precipitation patterns, topography and natural vegetation. Recommended trees for each region perform reliably in that environment and should thrive for many years.
Each set of recommendations includes:
- Link to a Google spreadsheet that you can download as an Excel file and sort based on desirable traits. The spreadsheet cannot be sorted online and must be downloaded or saved to your own desktop or Google Drive.
- Link to a PDF of the spreadsheet if you do not have access to Excel or Google sheets. The PDF cannot be sorted.
Southeast
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Big Woods
Topography is gently to moderately rolling. Soils were formed in thick deposits of gray limy glacial till left by the retreat of the Des Moines lobe. Red oak, sugar maple, basswood, and American elm were most common in this dominantly forested region.
Anoka Sand Plain
Flat, sandy lake plain and terraces along the Mississippi River. Most of the soils are sandy and droughty, but there are some organic soils. About 20 percent of the soils are very poorly drained; the rest are excessively well drained sands. Originally oak barrens and openings, with some jack pine along the northern edge.
Oak Savannah
Much of this area is a rolling plain of loess-mantled ridges over sandstone and carbonate bedrock and till. Soils range from wet to well-drained, formed under prairie or forest conditions. Original vegetation included bur oaks, maples, basswood, and prairie tall grasses.
Twin Cities Highlands
Rolling to steep slopes on the moraine and level to rolling on the outwash plain, with soils ranging from clay loam to sand. This area was a mosaic of tall grass prairie, savannahs, and maple-basswood forests prior to settlement.
Rochester Plateau
A rolling, high plateau of windblown silt over glacial till in the west and bedrock in the east. Soil depth generally decreases from west to east. Plant communities historically dominated by oak forests, maple-basswood forests, riparian forests, and tall grass prairies and oak savannahs in the drier areas.
Blufflands
An old bedrock plateau covered by windblown silt and then extensively eroded by rivers and streams. Broad ridgetops, steep coulees, and deep valleys were dominated by oak, shagbark hickory-basswood forests on moist slopes, oak-basswood-black walnut forests in the valleys, and prairies on the ridge tops and dry valleys.
Recommended
Trees in these sections include species that have a history of performing well as street, boulevard or landscape trees in general for southeastern Minnesota.
- Recommended deciduous (hardwood) trees
- Recommended deciduous (hardwood) trees
- Recommended conifers
- Recommended conifers
Limited use
Trees in these sections may have some value in certain instances, such as unusually harsh planting sites or for wildlife cover, but are not recommended for general use.
Trees to try
Trees in these sections have shown promise in landscapes or as street trees, but either do not have a long history of use in Southeast Minnesota or require specific siting requirements such as wind protection or acidic soils. Use caution until their performance is better documented.
Southwest
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Minnesota River Prairie
Level to gently rolling moraine, with well- to moderately well-drained loamy soils. A few soils are clayey, some sandy and gravelly. A very drying environment for woody plants. Original vegetation was prairie grasses and riparian forests of silver maple, cottonwood, elm and willow.
Inner Coteau
Soils are well-drained and consist of windblown silt with occasional bedrock outcrops. Plant communities were dominated by prairies; occasional riparian forests.
Coteau Moraines
Gently rolling to hilly land with windblown silt soils covering loamy, well-drained glacial material high in lime. Plant communities were dominated by tall grass prairies with occasional forests near streams.
Recommended
Trees in these sections include species that have a history of performing well as street, boulevard or landscape trees in general for southwestern Minnesota.
Limited use
Trees in these sections may have some value in certain instances, such as unusually harsh planting sites or for wildlife cover, but are not recommended for general use.
Trees to try
Trees in these sections have shown promise in landscapes or as street trees, but either do not have a long history of use in Southwest Minnesota or require specific siting requirements such as wind protection or acidic soils. Use caution until their performance is better documented.
Northwest and central
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Northwest Minnesota contains the Aspen Parklands ecological area and Central Minnesota contains the Hardwood Hills ecological area.
Aspen parklands
A low, level plain that is a transition zone between conifer peat bogs to the east and tallgrass prairie to the west. Soils range from loamy to gravelly, poor- to well-drained, and acidic to very alkaline. Originally, the area was vegetated by various types of prairies, aspen, silver maple, elm, cottonwood and ash.
Hardwood hills
Characterized by steep slopes, high hills and lakes, and acidic to alkaline, loamy soils. Presettlement vegetation ranged from tallgrass prairie to aspen, oak savannas, maple, basswood and other hardwood trees in fire-protected areas.
Recommended
Trees in these sections include species that have a history of performing well as street, boulevard or landscape trees in general for northwestern and central Minnesota.
Limited use
Trees in these sections may have some value in certain instances, such as unusually harsh planting sites or for wildlife cover, but are not recommended for general use.
Trees to try
Trees in these sections have shown promise in landscapes or as street trees, but either do not have a long history of use in Northwest and Central Minnesota or require specific siting requirements such as wind protection or acidic soils. Use caution until their performance is better documented.
Trees to use with caution
Trees in these sections either have chronic problems with growing and overall health, such as damaging diseases or site intolerances, or are not reliably hardy to the area; e.g., they are out of their natural cold hardiness zone. Use these trees with moderation in very well-prepared landscape sites with regular maintenance or well-protected micro-climates.
Northern tallgrass prairie
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Bounded to the west by the Red River and extending eastward to the limits of continuous tall grass prairie presettlement vegetation, much of this region is a large lake plain formed by the Glacial Lake Agassiz. Soils range from clays to sandy/gravelly beach ridges, may be poorly to moderately well drained, and are often very alkaline. Originally, the area was vegetated by bluestems, Indian grass, and other grasses. Narrow, forested floodplains were common along larger streams and rivers. Broader zones of woodland were common along the fire shadows of streams.
Recommended
Trees in these sections include species that have a history of performing well as street, boulevard or landscape trees in general for Northern Tallgrass Prairie Minnesota.
Limited use
Trees in these sections may have some value in certain instances, such as unusually harsh planting sites or for wildlife cover, but are not recommended for general use.
Trees to try
Trees in these sections have shown promise in landscapes or as street trees, but either do not have a long history of use in Northern Tallgrass Prairie Minnesota or require specific siting requirements such as wind protection or acidic soils. Use caution until their performance is better documented.
Trees to use with caution
Trees in these sections either have chronic problems with growing and overall health, such as damaging diseases or site intolerances, or are not reliably hardy to the area, e.g., they are out of their natural cold hardiness zone. Use these trees with moderation in very well-prepared landscape sites with regular maintenance or well-protected microclimates.
Reviewed in 2018
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