The PLANTS Database provides standardized information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories.

Plant of the Week

Chinese elm Ulmus parvifolia Jacq. Click on the photo for a full plant profile.

Spotlights

Pocket Guide to Sagebrush Funded partly by NRCS, a new guide to sagebrush is available. Written by Leila Shultz and produced by SageSTEP, this guide covers the characteristics, distribution, and habitats of 18 sagebrush species.

Common Weeds in Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands A bilingual guide to the common weeds of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands is now available from the USDA NRCS. It is useful not only in the Caribbean region but also in tropical to warm temperate areas throughout the Americas and beyond.

2012 National Wetland Plant List The wetland indicator status ratings from the revised National Wetland Plant List (NWPL) are now in PLANTS as a table linked to species profile pages. The NWPL is an interagency effort led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It is to be used for wetland determinations and delineations completed on or after June 1, 2012, for the purposes of the Food Security Act and the Clean Water Act. Soon, our Advanced Search and species profile pages will also report the 2012 wetland indicator status ratings.

Cover Crops Cover crops are a diverse group of plants that can be used on farmland for soil protection and health. We now offer a sortable list, linking to profile pages, of over 70 species used for cover crops in North America.

Gymnosperms updated Scientific names of all the gymnosperms in PLANTS are now updated to match the latest research. Oregon State University and the National Plant Data Team reviewed almost 700 names in this important group of plants.

PLANTS recommended as a GIS standard. A recently published article has recommended using the PLANTS database as a standard to make GIS forestry databases more mutually compatible. Clark, T. 2011. Standardizing species codes using the NRCS PLANTS database. The Forestry Source 16: 14--16.

New state maps We now provide larger, detailed maps for each of the 50 U.S. states, with county names indicated. Our standard state maps remain the same, but if you click on them a much more detailed map will appear in a new tab or window.

Using Farm Bill Programs for Pollinator Conservation (PDF; 278KB) Technical Note TN.190.B.78 - Using Farm Bill Programs for Pollinator Conservation is now available. Learn about Farm Bill programs and associated conservation practices that can increase pollinator populations for healthier and more profitable agro-ecosystems.

Last Modified: 05/14/2013