Arkansas state symbols

How to read it

The apple blossom is the oldest of the four. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas, published by the Central Arkansas Library System, gives the dates: the General Assembly made the apple blossom the official floral emblem in 1901, Arkansas being the second state to choose it, after Michigan. The mockingbird followed in 1929, by House Concurrent Resolution 22 (Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas have chosen it too), and the pine tree in 1939, by House Concurrent Resolution 2. The motto is on the state seal: Arkansas Code 1-4-108, as the Secretary of State quotes it, puts it on a scroll in the beak of the eagle. Its present Latin form dates from an act of 1907.

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Arkansas’s symbols and when each was adopted

Regnant populi became regnat populus

The territorial seal carried the motto as “Regnant Populi”, which the Encyclopedia of Arkansas says could also be translated as “the people rule”, but uses the plural noun, “peoples”. An act of 1907 changed the noun to the singular “populus” and the verb to match, giving “Regnat Populus”. The encyclopedia dates the act to 24 May 1907; the Secretary of State’s classroom sheets say the seal took its present form on 23 May 1907.

Which pine

The 1939 resolution names only “the pine tree”. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas says it did not specify a species, though the shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata) and the loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) are the two usually meant.