State Trees and Arbor Day Dates for All 50 States (2027 Guide)

Every state has an official tree, and every state has an Arbor Day. Most people know neither. We put both in one place: all 50 state trees, each state's Arbor Day rule, and the actual calendar date it lands on for the 2026–27 planting season. Teachers, garden clubs, city foresters and reporters are welcome to use the table and the stats below with a link back to this page.

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All 50 state trees and 2026–27 Arbor Day dates

State trees come from the USDA National Arboretum's State Tree and Flower Chart, updated for Utah, which replaced the blue spruce with the quaking aspen in 2014 (S.B. 41). Arbor Day rules come from the Congressional Research Service's December 2025 Arbor Day Fact Sheet. We converted each rule to a date. States with a fall or December Arbor Day show the next upcoming one.

Notes: California and Nevada each list two state trees. USDA's chart lists Arkansas's tree simply as "pine" and Iowa's as "oak," with no species named. Where a state sets its date by proclamation or within a month (Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon), check the state forestry agency for the exact day.

What the state tree list tells us

States overwhelmingly chose natives. The USDA National Arboretum notes that every state tree except Hawaii's is native to the state that named it. That makes the list a ready-made planting guide. You can see all of them in one place at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C., where the 30-acre National Grove of State Trees, planted starting in 1989, grows a tree for every state and D.C. If you want a tree adapted to your region, your state tree is a reasonable place to start.

Pines and oaks dominate. Ten states picked a pine, from Alabama's and North Carolina's longleaf to Montana's ponderosa. Six picked an oak. That mirrors the trees' economic and ecological weight. Oaks in particular are wildlife workhorses; see our 2027 tree planting statistics for the caterpillar and bird data.

Several states share a tree. Sugar maple leads with 4 states. White oak and tulip poplar are tied at 3 each (Connecticut, Illinois and Maryland for white oak; Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee for tulip poplar). Eastern cottonwood is shared by Kansas and Nebraska, and Wyoming's plains cottonwood is a subspecies of the same tree. American elm (Massachusetts, North Dakota), flowering dogwood (Missouri, Virginia), eastern white pine (Maine, Michigan) and the sabal palmetto (Florida, South Carolina) each represent two states.

Flowering trees are the exception. Only a handful of state trees are grown mainly for flowers: Oklahoma's eastern redbud, the flowering dogwood of Missouri and Virginia, and Mississippi's magnolia.

Why the South celebrates Arbor Day in winter

The first Arbor Day was held in Nebraska on April 10, 1872, and more than 1 million trees were planted that day, according to the Congressional Research Service. President Nixon proclaimed a national Arbor Day in 1972, now set on the last Friday in April. It is not a federal holiday, and many states keep their own date.

The calendar follows the climate. Texas and Hawaii celebrate on the first Friday in November and South Carolina on the first Friday in December. Florida and Louisiana go on the third Friday in January. Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Oklahoma follow in February, and Arkansas, California, New Mexico, North Carolina and Tennessee in March. By late April, much of the South is heading into summer heat, which is hard on new trees.

Cool-season planting gives roots a head start. University of Tennessee Extension foresters and horticulturists note that soil often stays warm enough in fall for root growth, and that this "fall root growth will be valuable in establishing a foundation of healthy, young roots." They also warn that fall is often the driest time of year in Tennessee, so new trees need steady watering.

Tennessee's state tree: the tulip poplar

Tennessee shares the tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) with Kentucky and Indiana. Despite the name, it is a member of the magnolia family, not a true poplar. The USDA Forest Service's Silvics of North America describes it as "among the tallest of all Eastern United States broadleaf trees." Old-growth trees on the best sites can approach 200 feet, and seedlings and saplings are "capable of making extremely rapid growth."

Tennessee's Arbor Day is the first Friday in March, which is March 5, 2027. That is late enough for the worst cold to have passed and early enough to beat summer heat. TN Nursery grows tulip trees and bare-root tulip poplar seedlings for school, church and community plantings.

How to plant your state tree this season

1. Check that it fits your yard. State trees are chosen for symbolism, not lot size. A sugar maple or northern red oak wants room to spread. A redbud or dogwood fits a small yard.
2. Plant while dormant. In the South, November through March is prime time for bare-root and container trees. Farther north, plant in fall before the ground freezes or in early spring as soon as soil can be worked.
3. Dig wide, not deep. Set the root flare at or slightly above grade, backfill with native soil, and water deeply.
4. Mulch and water. A 2–3 inch ring of mulch, kept off the trunk, holds moisture through dry fall and winter weeks.

Not sure which native fits? Browse our native trees and shade trees, or pick a red maple (Rhode Island's state tree), a bald cypress (Louisiana) or a pecan (Texas). If you're replacing a Bradford pear, see our state-by-state Bradford pear ban guide.

About TN Nursery

TN Nursery is a Tennessee native-plant nursery founded in 1959 by Roscoe Tate. Today we grow on 170 acres. We've raised more than 200,000 redbuds, Oklahoma's state tree, and about 2 million pawpaw trees from roughly 2 tons of seed. The U.S. Air Force and the Discovery Channel once used our maple trees to film a time-lapse of a tree going from dormancy to full leaf.

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Sources

1. USDA National Arboretum (U.S. National Arboretum, USDA-ARS). State Tree and Flower Chart (archived copy, last updated Aug. 9, 2006).
2. Utah Department of Cultural & Community Engagement, State Library. Utah State Tree: Quaking Aspen (S.B. 41, 2014).
3. Congressional Research Service. Arbor Day Fact Sheet, R48749, Dec. 5, 2025.
4. U.S. National Arboretum. National Grove of State Trees (archived).
5. Beck, D.E. Liriodendron tulipifera, Yellow-Poplar. In Silvics of North America, Vol. 2, USDA Forest Service Agriculture Handbook 654.
6. University of Tennessee Extension. Selecting and Establishing the Right Plant: Fall Planting Part 2, Tree News, Nov. 2020.

Counts (states per species or genus, Arbor Day timing) are TN Nursery's tallies from sources 1–3. Dates for 2026–27 were calculated from each state's rule in source 3.