Links to other plant databases & plant-related sites

Flora of North America

The Flora of North America north of Mexico (usually referred to as FNA) is a collaboration of more than 800 authors describing the plants of North America.

http://www.efloras.org/flora_page.aspx?flora_id=1

or the new beta site: http://floranorthamerica.org/Main_Page

PLANTS National Database

https://plants.usda.gov/

Flora of the Southeastern United States

A comprehensive and up-to-date resource sorting out the names, relationships, and identifying characters of southeastern flora as they are currently understood. By Alan S. Weakley.

Download the Flora of the Southeastern United States in PDF format, order the field guide Wildflowers of the Atlantic Southeast, or download an app here: https://ncbg.unc.edu/research/unc-herbarium/floras/

Access an interactive online version of the Flora of the Southeastern United States here: https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu/

Vascular Plants of North Carolina

This website provides a refreshing review of all of the vascular plant taxa known to occur in North Carolina, or to have been reported as occurring in the state, with information on the relative rarity or abundance of each taxon, the geographic range, habitat, flowering and fruiting periods, and comments on the taxonomy and other notable features of each taxon.

https://auth1.dpr.ncparks.gov/flora/index.php

NatureServe Explorer

An authoritative source for information on more than 65,000 plants, animals, and ecosystems of the United States and Canada. Explorer includes particularly in-depth coverage for rare and endangered species.

https://explorer.natureserve.org/

Grass Manual on the Web

Materials for this website were developed as a part of the Manual of Grasses for North America project.

https://herbarium.usu.edu/webmanual/

Angiosperm Phylogeny Website

A set of characterizations of all orders and families of extant angiosperms (flowering plants) and gymnosperms, i.e. all seed plants.

http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/APweb/

Phytoneuron: Digital Publications in Plant Biology

A venue for digital publication of miscellaneous reports on taxonomy, floristics, and geographical distribution of vascular plants.

www.phytoneuron.net

The Erosion of Collections-Based Science: Alarming Trend or Coincidence?

The scientists who study, preserve, and curate historic and otherwise important botanical specimens, have been fired, downsized, forced into retirement, or had their focus directed away from taxonomy and systematics. It is troubling that there seems to be an alarming trend in museum and garden administrations to devalue collections and the staff who study and care for them. This is a critical point in time to work toward a world-wide effort to stop and reverse this attrition.

The Plant Press, A quarterly newsletter from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (10-28-2014)

Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance

A network of more than 40 Georgia universities, botanical gardens, zoos, state and federal agencies, conservation organizations, and private companies that are committed to ecological land management, native plant conservation, and protection of rare and endangered plants.

http://botgarden.uga.edu/conservation-science/georgia-plant-conservation-alliance/

Georgia Biodiversity Portal

A collaborative project of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division which includes rare plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, and natural communities.

www.georgiabiodiversity.a2hosted.com/natels/

North Carolina Biodiversity Project

The mission of the NC Biodiversity Project (NCBP) is to promote public interest in North Carolina’s rich diversity of native species and ecosystems, and to support biodiversity conservation statewide.

nc-biodiversity.com/

Rare Plants of North Carolina

Federally listed species and their congeners.

projects.ncsu.edu/cals/plantbiology/ncsc/rare/index.html

South Carolina Plant Conservation Alliance

Conserving rare plants for future generations.

scplantconservation.org

SERNEC: Southeast Regional Network of Expertise and Collections

SERNEC is a consortium of 233 herbaria in 14 states in the southeastern USA, providing herbarium specimen images and metadata from one of the most botanically diverse regions of the earth with the goal of facilitating research, management planning and a well-informed public.

www.sernecportal.org

University of South Carolina Herbarium

http://www.herbarium.org

University of Tennessee Vascular Plant Herbarium

https://herbarium.utk.edu/vascular/index.php

Biota of North America Program (BONAP)

A program whose goal is to develop a unified digital system for assessing the North American biota, including taxonomy, plant distribution maps, wetland plant list, and more.

http://www.bonap.org/

http://bonap.net/TDC/

South Carolina Plant Atlas

The purpose of this Atlas is to show, on a county by county basis, the distribution of all native and naturalized ferns, fern allies, gymnosperms, and angiosperms of South Carolina.

http://herbarium.biol.sc.edu/scplantatlas.html

Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora

http://www.vaplantatlas.org

PlantAtlas.org

The Plant Atlas is an evolving partnership of herbaria, universities, conservation organizations, government agencies and information technology professionals. Includes plants from Florida, Alabama, Indiana, and New York. Tennesee and Kentucky will be added in the future.

http://www.plantatlas.org/

Dictionary of Botanical Epithets

http://botanicalepithets.net/

PlantSystematics.org

The Diversity of Life websites provide fast databased images, cladograms, phylogenies, diagnostic keys and nomenclature for a vast number of plants and animals.

www.plantsystematics.org

Plants Poisonous to Livestock and Pets in North Carolina

Annual livestock losses from poisonous plants can largely be prevented with an increased knowledge of plants which may pose a threat and their distributions and habitats. This website is an online version of the 1961 publication North Carolina ARS Bulletin No. 414 (revised) by J.W. Hardin and C.F. Brownie, expanded and updated where necessary.

https://herbarium.ncsu.edu/poisonous/

Field Guide to the Southern Piedmont

The Field Guide to the Southern Piedmont is an identification guide to more than 700 common or distinctive organisms living in the region, including plants, amphibians, birds, insects, mammals, reptiles, and even some common bird and insect songs! By Jonathan Storm. (There is also a Facebook page by the same author.)

https://www.uscupstate.edu/fieldguide/

https://www.facebook.com/piedmontnaturalhistory/

SciStarter - find a Citizen Science project near you

https://scistarter.org/finder

Botany Depot

A global website for creative ideas and materials for teaching botany in the 21st century for all ages and levels where you can find links to resources, stories and publications, lesson plans, manuals, figures, and a lot more – all shared by active botanical educators. By Lena Struwe.

https://botanydepot.com/

Plant Information Center

The intent of the Plant Information Center (PIC) is to connect the research community and the general public (including school children) so that primary research materials owned by the University of North Carolina can be made available to these new audiences and that expert knowledge may also be shared. PIC is also driven by the desire to nurture the interest and enthusiasm of these audiences in the study of trees, plants, and natural history.

http://www.ibiblio.org/pic/

Wildflower Coloring Pages

Color and learn about wildflowers and noxious weeds! from the United States Forest Service.

www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/kids/coloring/index.shtml

Catesby in the Classroom:
Students Explore the Intersection of Art and Science

Illustrations from the 16th century naturalist Mark Catesby's The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands (which can be seen online at the Biodiversity Heritage Library [click "View Volume"]) are the foundation of lesson plans designed to help students learn more about the importance of observation and the relationship between art and science. Developed as part of a collaboration with the Catesby Commemorative Trust and the College of Charleston.

Learn more about this by listening to an interview on Walter Edgar's Journal: southcarolinapublicradio.org/post/creating-better-way-learn

Download the lesson plans here:

www.learningwhy.org/catesby-investigation

and here www.learningwhy.org/catesby-zoom

Learning at home with Kew Gardens resources

Learn about plant and fungal science from home with curriculum-aligned resources from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

www.kew.org/learning/learning-at-home

Southern Piedmont Wildlife Coloring Book

This coloring book is a fun and free way to learn about local organisms. By Jonathan Storm.

https://www.uscupstate.edu/fieldguide/

Opening the World through Journaling:
Integrating art, science, and language arts

A curriculum that teaches children to become keen observers of the natural world by drawing and writing about the plants and animals in situ. It is geared primarily towards children age 8 and up and will work in a multitude of settings from school yards, camps, and nature centers to family outings. From the California Native Plant Society.

https://www.cnps.org/education/students/parents-teachers

Florida Invasive Plant Education Initiative and Curriculum

Created to provide educators with the information and resources needed to teach students about the harmful impacts some non-native, invasive plants are having on our natural areas and neighborhoods, with the ultimate goal that today’s youth would draw on this knowledge as they mature into responsible environmental stewards. From UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants.

plants.ifas.ufl.edu/education/

Invasive Plants and Your Forests

Invasive plants are present on 1 out of every 10 southern forest acres, a staggering 19 million acres. Invasive plants are likely to double their extent in the next 50 years as the climate becomes more variable. This note explores the impacts and possible control measures for invasive plants in forestlands.

https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/invasive-plants-and-your-forests

Trees, Shrubs, and Woody Vines of North Carolina

Included in this website are about 450 species accounts with photographs and ID tips, a key to help you identify common Piedmont tree species from their leaves. By Will Cook.

http://www.carolinanature.com/trees/

Pines of South Carolina

http://herbarium.biol.sc.edu/pines.html

Tree Identification Fact Sheets from Virginia Tech

http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/factsheets.cfm

Tree Identification for South Carolina

Developed by the South Carolina Forestry Commission in cooperation with the Forest Stewardship Program.

http://www.state.sc.us/forest/reftree.htm

Field Guide to Native Oak Species of Eastern North America

This field guide provides species descriptions for the 50 native oaks found to occur east of the 100th meridian in North America north of Mexico. Other features included are: county-level distribution maps, distribution according to ecoregion, leaf keys, indices of common and scientific names, a glossary, species summary tables including synonymous species, and a fold-out leaf identification chart. FHTET-2003-01. US Forest Service Publication, out of print. (Download a PDF)

Tree Bark ID

Tips on identifying trees by their bark, along with bark photographs of native trees found in the vicinity of Raleigh, North Carolina.

https://projects.ncsu.edu/cals/plantbiology/ncsc/happy2_files/happy2.htm

A Field Guide to Conifers found in the Northeast United States

This field guide was created by Peter H. Kenlan as part of a field biology course taught at Brandeis University by Dan L. Perlman.

http://www.bio.brandeis.edu/fieldbio/pkenlan/HTML/

Guide to the Wildflowers, Ferns, Trees, Shrubs, and Woody Vines of Georgia and Adjacent States

The thousands of excellent photographs, habitat info, and maps found here are a pleasure to view and to use in the identification of plants occurring in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. By Richard Ware.

http://ngaflora.com/

Wildflowers, Shrubs, Trees, and Vines of North Carolina

Photographs and information on various species of North Carolina wildflowers, shrubs, trees, and vines. All species of each genus are pictured together on a single page for easy comparison. By Jeff Pippen.

http://www.jeffpippen.com/plants/plants.htm

Field identification of the 50 most common plant families in temperate regions

Dpwnload a PDF manual summarizing field identification characters of the 50 most common plant families in temperate regions (including agricultural, horticultural, and wild species). By Lena Struwe.

https://botanydepot.com/2018/01/28/50tempmanual/

Missouri Plants

Excellent photographs and detailed descriptions of the flowering and non-flowering plants of Missouri. Plants are categorized by flower color and/or leaf characteristics. By Dan Tenaglia.

http://www.missouriplants.com/

Violets (Violaceae) of the Great Plains and Eastern North America

A new website, designed to be a current and comprehensive resource on Violaceae in the Great Plains and eastern North America, that will help viewers to identify and learn more about our violet flora and encourage further study. By Harvey Ballard.

https://people.ohio.edu/ballardh/vgpena/

North Carolina Plant Photos

Photographs of North Carolina plants, arranged alphabetically with date and location. By Will Cook.

http://www.carolinanature.com/plants/

Southeastern Flora

An online resource to assist you in identifying native or naturalized wildflowers you may find in the southeastern United States. Define a few characteristics about your plant specimen, and the visual photo search results will help you narrow your selection to the exact species. By John Gwaltney.

http://southeasternflora.com

Alabama Plants

Excellent photographs and detailed descriptions of the flowering and non-flowering plants of Alabama. Plants are categorized by flower color and/or leaf characteristics. By Dan Tenaglia.

http://www.alabamaplants.com/

Wildflower Search

A wildflower identification website that allows you to search for wildflowers by location, color, shape and time, and provides links to numerous other resources. By Steve Sullivan.

wildflowersearch.org/

Wildflowers of the Southeastern United States

A more or less eclectic and ever growing database of plants found in one of the most biologically diverse regions of the world. By Daniel Reed.

http://2bnthewild.com/index2.shtml

Celebrating Wildflowers

Celebrating Wildflowers is dedicated to the enjoyment of the thousands of wildflowers growing on our national forests and grasslands, and to educating the public about the many values of native plants. The site includes information on pollinators, native plant gardening, landscaping for wildlife, the importance of local ecotypes, genetic considerations, rare plants, wildflower ethics, unique natural communities, as well as pages "just for kids," and teacher resources.

http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

This native plants database includes over 14,000 plant species native to North America, and allows you to search for plants based on a combination of characteristics, such as light and water requirements, bloom color and season.

http://www.wildflower.org/plants

Jim Fowler Photography Blog

We have lost avid wildflower photographer/author Jim Fowler, but the blog allowing us to learn from and vicariously enjoy his adventures — and his beautiful photographs — remains as his gift to us.

www.jfowlerphotography.net/?page_id=19

A Monthly Guide to Georgia Native Plants

This unique site changes each month, with pictures illustrating what the plants look like "now!" By Mike Strickland.

http://georgianatives.net

Native Plants for Georgia: Ferns

A University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service guide to native ferns for Georgia gardens.

https://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?number=B987-2

Hardy Fern Library

A site with the goal of making the identification of hardy ferns accessible to amateurs by assembling in one place much of the information available. By Tom Stuart.

https://hardyfernlibrary.com

Identifying Native Ferns

This handy beginner's guide to common ferns uses drawings and photographs (as well as words) to point out identifying features. By Stephanie C. Brundage.

Click to download a PDF.

The Natural Communities of South Carolina,

Initial Classification and Description. By John B. Nelson (1986)
The Natural Communities of South Carolina was a product of the SC Wildlife and Marine Resources Department, now part of SC Department of Natural Resources. The communities are grouped by land form: terrestrial, marine, estuarine, palustrine.

http://herbarium.biol.sc.edu/communities.html

Classification of the Natural Communities of North Carolina,

Fourth Approximation. By Michael P. Schafale (December 2023) (Download a PDF)

The Natural Communities of Georgia

Based on the book The Natural Communities of Georgia, this website provides plant lists and ecological notes for the natural communities of North Georgia. By Leslie Edwards.

http://www.naturalcommunitiesofgeorgia.com/

Field Guide to Common Wetland Plants of North Carolina

Designed for anyone interested in the state's wetland flora, this 430-page, fully illustrated guide provides information for identifying over 200 species of plants commonly found in North Carolina's mountain, piedmont, and coastal plain wetlands. Prepared by the NC Division of Water Resources and available as a PDF or in printed form. By Kristie Gianopulos, Karen Kendig, and Milo Pyne, 2021.

Field Guide to Common Wetland Plants of North Carolina

Wetland Plant Identification

This site seeks to facilitate the identification of common wetland plants of the Piedmont and Coastal Plain of the Carolinas.

http://harvest.cals.ncsu.edu/applications/plant_biology/wetland/library/PrefaceNEW.cfm/

Native Plant Center: Chesapeake Region

Search this database for native plants by region, plant type, sun exposure, soil texture, and/or soil moisture. The site also includes the downloadable US Fish and Wildlife Service publication Native Plants for Wildlife Habitat and Conservation Landscaping: Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

http://www.nativeplantcenter.net/

Restoring Nature's Relationships

Author and research scientist Doug Tallamy presents "Restoring Nature's Relationships" during the Opening Plenary of the 2018 CNPS Conservation Conference. Los Angeles, CA. February 1, 2018.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wzcz8dWyBc&t=10s

Native Plant Alternatives

Leaving old garden standards behind is difficult but necessary if our natural parks, forests, and fields are to have a future. When you are ready to eradicate those unruly invasives from your garden and add some new choices to your plant inventory, the National Arboretum and the US Forest Service offer these recommendations.

https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/Native_Plant_Materials/Native_Gardening/alternatives.shtml

Going Native: Urban landscaping for wildlife with native plants

Why and how to go native! Includes a 10-minute video and several downloadable publications such as Managing Backyards and Other Urban Habitats for Birds, Butterflies in Your Backyard, Landscaping for Wildlife with Native Plants, and Reptiles and Amphians in Your Back Yard.

http://www.ncsu.edu/goingnative/whygo/index.html

Native Plants for Georgia: Trees, Shrubs, and Woody Vines

A University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service guide to native plants for Georgia gardens.

https://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?number=B987/

Native Plants for Georgia Part IV: Grasses and Sedges

A University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service guide to native grasses and sedges for Georgia landscapes.

https://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?number=B987-4

Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Native Alternatives

A suggested list of native plants to use as alternatives to commonly planted but invasive species.

http://www.bbg.org/nativealternatives

Weed Library

The National Gardening Association's collection of "weeds" common in gardens, lawns, and landscapes along with the essential information you need for identifying and managing them.

http://www.garden.org/weedlibrary/