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USDA PLANTS Database

A database of all plants found in the U.S. and its territories, maintained by the United States Department of Agriculture.

Website: https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/java/


The USDA PLANTS database is one of the primary resources on plants in the United States. Some of the highlights of this database include range maps by state and county, a variety of fields that can be searched or filtered, the listing of hybrids, subspecies, and varieties, and the ability to easily export data..

For some, but not most plants, the database links to a Plant Guide on each species, an article about the plant, including some basics of its distribution, habitat, and a verbal description of it. Some pages have images, which include a mix of copyrighted images and ones with open licensing.

Although it focuses on the United States, it has a limited amount of information about plants in Canada.

Although the USDA PLANTS database used to be one of the best resources for plant distribution, it has mostly been supplanted by BONAP and other websites. For reasons unknown to us, the USDA PLANTS database has been infrequently updated over the years and failed to keep pace with modern taxonomic changes as well as newer information about plant distribution and native vs. introduced status in various regions. BONAP maintains similar distribution information that is more up-to-date and accurate in most cases, and it also tends to be more up-to-date on plant taxonomy. However, the USDA database is still useful as it still has some features that cannot be found on other sites. Its use is best supplemented by consulting other sources to make sure that the material on it is up-to-date.