StatesFacts
Menu

All 50 states

Mississippi state symbols

Mississippi has 36 official state symbols. The magnolia is both the state flower and the state tree, and it is at the center of the 2021 state flag. Most of the symbols are written into Chapter 3 of Title 3 of the Mississippi Code; the newest, a state tartan, dates from 2026.

36 official designations · every law checked October 23, 2026

Magnolias and mockingbirds

Mississippi’s best-known symbols are old choices. Schoolchildren voted for the magnolia as state flower in 1900, and a campaign by the state’s director of forestry led to a second children’s vote in which the magnolia beat the oak, the pine and the dogwood for state tree; the Legislature named the tree in 1938 and the flower only in 1952. The northern mockingbird, credited by the state’s Blue Book to both the Women’s Federated Clubs and the Legislature, became the state bird in 1944. The motto on the coat of arms, Virtute et Armis, “By valor and arms,” goes back to 1894.

The 1974 batch

Five symbols came in a single law in 1974: the white-tailed deer as state land mammal, the bottlenose dolphin as state water mammal, the largemouth bass, the oyster shell and the wood duck. The red fox joined the deer as a second state land mammal in 1997. Later laws added the honeybee in 1980, milk as the state beverage in 1984, English as the official language in 1987, and the spicebush swallowtail butterfly and the coreopsis wildflower in 1991.

Places, toys and dances

Mississippi has named several institutions as official symbols. The Grand Opera House of Meridian became the state grand opera house in 1993, and the Tupelo Automobile Museum, the Mississippi Industrial Heritage Museum and the State Wildlife Heritage Museum in Leland also hold official titles. The square dance is the state’s American folk dance. The teddy bear became the state toy in 2003, because the toy traces back to Theodore Roosevelt’s bear hunt in the Mississippi Delta.

Stones, fossils and soil

Some symbols come from the ground. Petrified wood became the state stone in 1976, by a resolution that noted it turns up across the state and singled out the Mississippi Petrified Forest. The state fossil, a prehistoric whale, was prompted by a whale skeleton that members of the Mississippi Gem and Mineral Society found along Thompson Creek in Yazoo County in 1971. Natchez silt loam is the state soil, and the Mississippi Opal, found by state geologists in Claiborne County and the only gemstone known to form naturally in the state, became the state gemstone in 2023.

A busy decade

The list has grown fast in the 2020s. Besides the new flag and the new state song, the Legislature added the opal and the blueberry, covering three species, in 2023; the American Quarter Horse and the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, which the law calls the world’s most endangered sea turtle, in 2024; the sweet potato in 2025; and in 2026 an official Mississippi tartan, free for any organization or person connected with the state to use.

1 1890s 1910s 1 1930s 1 1 1950s 6 1970s 4 5 1990s 4 1 2010s 8 2020s
Official symbols adopted per decade. The busiest decade was the 2020s, with eight.

Flag, seal, song, motto and nickname

Animals

Plants and fungi

Earth and sky

Food and drink

Songs, words and language

Culture and history

Government emblems

Places and institutions

Questions about Mississippi's symbols

What is the Mississippi state bird?
The northern mockingbird, chosen in 1944.
What is the Mississippi state flower?
The magnolia, the bloom of the southern magnolia tree. Schoolchildren chose it in 1900 and the Legislature made it official in 1952. The magnolia is also the state tree.
What is the Mississippi state song?
'"One Mississippi" by Steve Azar, adopted in 2022. It replaced "Go Mississippi," the state song from 1962.'
Why is the teddy bear Mississippi's state toy?
Because the teddy bear traces back to President Theodore Roosevelt's bear hunt in the Mississippi Delta. It became the state toy in 2003.
What is Mississippi's state fossil?
A prehistoric whale. The 1981 resolution was prompted by a fossil whale skeleton found along Thompson Creek in Yazoo County in 1971.
Photo credits (11)

Something out of date? Tell us and we will check it against the law.

Sources