29-01-2025
Wednesday is Kansas Day. Here are the state grass, fish, fruit and more
Kansans learn from an early age that their state tree is the cottonwood, the state song is "Home on the Range" and the state bird is the western meadowlark, which received that designation 100 years ago Wednesday.
But as they celebrate the Sunflower State's 164th anniversary of statehood on Wednesday, Kansans may be less familiar with the identities of the state fish, fruit, grass, rock, mineral, gemstone, fossils and wine grapes.
Kansas lawmakers have adopted all those symbols in the past 15 years. Following is more about them.
The state fruit is the sandhill plum, adopted by lawmakers in 2022 at the request of more than 500 Kansas fourth- and fifth-graders.
The effort was spearheaded by students from Sabetha in Nemaha County.
The state grass is the little bluestem, adopted in 2010 after an initiative launched by students at Shawnee Mission South High School in Johnson County.
Little bluestem was chosen only after Kansas House members suggested instead adopting big bluestem or buffalo grass as the state grass, Topeka Capital-Journal archives show.
The state fish is the channel catfish, which Kansas lawmakers chose to receive that distinction in 2018.
Legislators had been discussing potentially making that move since the 1980s, then-Sen. Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, said at the time.
Kansas lawmakers in 2014 named the Pteranodon as the state flying fossil and the Tylosaurus as the state marine fossil.
Fossils have been found in Kansas of both the Tylosaurus, an extinct reptile that swam the oceans that covered Kansas 85 million years ago, and the Pteranodon, an extinct, winged pterosaur that soared in the skies above those waters.
Lawmakers in 2023 named Silvisaurus condrayi, — a 3-foot-tall, 10-foot-long dinosaur that roamed the Sunflower State 100 million years ago — as the state land fossil.
The Museum of Natural History at the University of Kansas displays a fossil discovered in north-central Kansas of Silvisaurus condrayi, which that university says is the only dinosaur known to have inhabited Kansas.
Kansas lawmakers in 2019 designate the Chambourcin as the state's official red wine grape and the Vignoles as its official white wine grape.
Chambourcin grapes produce a medium-bodied red wine similar to Pinot Noir, with a fruity aroma.
Vignoles grapes are used to make various styles of wine.
The 2018 bill designating the channel catfish as the state fish also designated Greenhorn limestone as the state rock, Galena as the state mineral and Jelinite as the state gemstone.
Elementary school students had lobbied in favor of the latter three choices.
According to the text of the bill involved:
Greenhorn limestone is a staple of the Flint Hills and used in buildings throughout Kansas.
Galena is a type of lead ore, which propelled population growth in the state because it could be mined.
Jelinite, formerly known as "Kansasite," is found near the state's Smoky Hill River.
Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@ or 785-213-5934.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: What the the Kansas grass, fish, fossils and fruit? Find out here
