Tennessee state symbols

How to read it

The state’s website gives the bird, the mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos), as selected in 1933, and the tulip poplar as the state tree since 1947. The Tennessee Encyclopedia adds that the mockingbird was chosen in a statewide vote. The iris is the official cultivated flower; the act naming it did not choose a colour, and by common acceptance the purple iris is the state flower, the state’s website says. Public Chapter 829 of 2012 names two official wild flowers: the passion flower and Tennessee echinacea, Echinacea tennesseensis. Public Chapter 228, passed on April 3, 2023, rewrote the motto law: the mottoes are “Agriculture and Commerce”, “as proclaimed on the great seal of the state of Tennessee since 1801”, and “Send Me”. The nickname, the Volunteer State, comes from the state’s part in the War of 1812.

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Why Tennessee has three state flowers

The Tennessee Encyclopedia tells it. In 1919 the legislature asked schoolchildren to choose a state flower, and they chose the passionflower, or maypop. In 1933 the legislature named the iris state flower as well. It was settled in 1973, when the legislature made the passionflower the state wildflower and the iris the state cultivated flower. In 2012 the Tennessee coneflower was added as a second wildflower.

The motto’s dates

A US Senate resolution marking the state’s 225th anniversary says “Agriculture and Commerce” was officially adopted in 1987, taken from the wording on the state seal. The 2023 law dates the words on the seal to 1801. Both can be right: the words were on the seal long before they were adopted as the motto.

States with the same bird

Texas also names the mockingbird as its state bird.