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Michigan state symbols

Michigan has 19 official state symbols. The oldest are the seal and motto of 1835 and the apple blossom of 1897; the newest is the wood duck, which became Michigan's first state duck in 2026. Many of the symbols come from the Great Lakes, from the Petoskey stone on the beaches to the dwarf lake iris on the northern shores.

19 official designations · every law checked October 23, 2026

Blossom, robin and pine

Michigan’s oldest symbol after the seal is the apple blossom, adopted in 1897. The resolution praised the beauty of blossoming orchards and the reputation of Michigan apples, and noted that a fragrant native crabapple grows in the state. The robin followed in 1931, after a 1929 vote run by the Michigan Audubon Society in which close to 200,000 people chose among 21 birds; the robin narrowly beat the black-capped chickadee. Efforts to replace it with the Kirtland’s warbler or the chickadee have all failed. The white pine became the state tree in 1955.

Stones from ancient seas

Michigan’s geology gives it two famous stones. The Petoskey stone, the state stone since 1965, is a fossilized coral that lived in a warm sea about 350 million years ago; polished, it shows a honeycomb of six-sided cells, and collectors hunt for it on Lake Michigan beaches. Chlorastrolite, or Isle Royale greenstone, is the state gem. The mastodon, whose fossils turn up across the state, became the state fossil in 2002.

Great Lakes wildlife

The brook trout became the state fish in 1988, narrowing an earlier designation of “the trout.” The law even told the state to use up its old printed materials before printing new ones naming the brook trout. The painted turtle is the state reptile and the white-tailed deer the state game mammal. In 2026 Michigan adopted its first state duck, the wood duck, celebrated by its backers as a conservation success: once near extinction, it now numbers an estimated 100,000 in Michigan.

A rare wildflower

The state wildflower, the dwarf lake iris, adopted in 1998, is one of the rarest plants among the states’ symbols. It grows nowhere in the world except along the northern shores of Lakes Michigan and Huron, and most of its populations are in Michigan. It is protected as a threatened species under both state and federal law.

Water and rice

Two recent symbols honor water and the people of the Great Lakes. In 2004 Michigan named the American lotus its official clean water symbol. In 2023 it made manoomin, wild rice, the official native grain, describing it as a sacred plant important to wetlands and to the state’s Indigenous peoples.

The main symbols

The flag, the robin and the apple blossom each have their own page. The Great Seal may not be reproduced for any purpose unconnected with the state’s official business, so it is described here but not shown.

2 1830s 1860s 1 1890s 1 1920s 2 1 1950s 1 2 1 1980s 4 2 2010s 2 2020s
Official symbols adopted per decade. The busiest decade was the 1990s, with four.

Flag, seal, song, motto and nickname

Animals

Plants and fungi

Earth and sky

Food and drink

Songs, words and language

Government emblems

Questions about Michigan's symbols

What is the Michigan state animal?
Michigan has no state animal as such. The white-tailed deer is the state game mammal, the painted turtle the state reptile, the brook trout the state fish, the robin the state bird and, since 2026, the wood duck the state duck.
What is a Petoskey stone?
Michigan's state stone, a fossil of an ancient colonial coral, Hexagonaria percarinata, about 350 million years old. Polished, it shows a pattern of six-sided cells, and it is found on beaches around Petoskey and the Little Traverse Bay.
What is manoomin?
Wild rice, a sacred plant and traditional food of the state's Indigenous peoples, which Michigan made its official native grain in 2023.
What is the Michigan state song?
"My Michigan," written in 1933 and adopted by a 1937 resolution. "Michigan, My Michigan" is popular but not official.
Photo credits (8)

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