Please see our new Cover Crops page. 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.

Oregon State University and the National Plant Data Team have completed a review of the 696 names of gymnosperms in PLANTS. Gymnosperms include conifers like pines, firs, and cypress, Ginkgo, Ephedra, and cycads. The team reviewed all gymnosperm names published since 2005. Attached is a comma-delimited text file showing the 31 new accepted gymnosperm names with comments on each one. The review also added over 70 new synonyms (names that are not accepted) to the database.

A recently published article has recommended using PLANTS 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.

PLANTS welcomes three new botanists to the National Plant Data Team (NPDT): Gerry Moore (Team Lead), Doug Goldman, and Mark Garland. Data updates to PLANTS have begun and will be a high priority of the team in the coming months.