Oklahoma state symbols

How to read it

The Oklahoma Statutes name “the scissor-tailed flycatcher, Muscivora Forficata” as the state bird (25 O.S. § 98, 1951), “the redbud tree” as the state tree (2 O.S. § 16-69) and, in one section, two flowers: “The mistletoe shall be the floral emblem of the state” and “The Oklahoma Rose shall be the official flower” (25 O.S. § 92). The Oklahoma Historical Society gives the history. Mistletoe is the state’s oldest symbol, chosen as Oklahoma Territory’s floral emblem in 1893; the Oklahoma Rose was adopted in 2004; and the redbud, the eastern redbud, was named in 1937, in a law later moved to its present place in 2001. The state wildflower is the Indian blanket (Gaillardia pulchella), from 1986. The nickname is the Sooner State.

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A motto that isn’t defined as one

“Labor omnia vincit” is on the state seal, which the constitution describes as “including the words, ‘Labor Omnia Vincit’”. The Historical Society says the phrase was called a motto in the 1893 statute on the territorial seal, and that the constitution includes it in the seal without officially defining it as a motto.

Three flowers

Oklahoma has a floral emblem, an official flower and a wildflower. Until 2004 the law named only the mistletoe; the 2004 amendment added the Oklahoma Rose as the official flower and kept the mistletoe as the floral emblem.