Summer 2024
Native Plant Resources
by Robin Mitchell
The California Native Plant Society (CNPS) has two recent resources that can help with identifying and understanding California native plants. The first is an updated and redesigned Calscape web platform. The second is a new “Wildflowers of California” book.
Calscape Updated and Redesigned!
The first resource is an update and redesign to the web database Calscape, which has a description of over 8,500 California native plants and cultivars, and has over 1 million visitors a year. Calscape allows the user to search for native plants in specific areas, by zip code or city name, which shows the native plants that are found in that area. Users can also search by specific plant names, and the database will display details about the plant, including landscaping information, companion plants, wildlife supported, butterflies and moths supported, and a description of its natural setting.
The main search box allows input of the plant name, either common name or botanical name:
Selecting that plant will show all the different Coyote Mint species that are in the Calscape database.
Clicking on one of the options will show the detailed information for that particular variety or cultivar, as well as a link to nurseries that carry the plant.
A map displays the distribution of the plant, as well as other detailed information about it.
Other information about each plant includes:
- Plant Description
- Landscaping information
- Soil description and propagation information
- A list of companion plants
- Wildlife supported
- Butterflies and moths supported
- Natural setting information
It is also possible to filter by different characteristics to find plants for specific landscaping requirements, including:
- Sun and water requirements
- Special uses such as
- Bank stabilization
- Containers
- Deer resistant
- Hedge
- Lawn alternative
- Water features or web habitat
- Soil drainage
- Ease of Care
- Attracts Wildlife
- Size
- Flower Color
- Flowering Season
- Seasonality
- Cultivars
- Plant Communities
New “Wildflowers of California” Book
California belongs to one of the world’s 36 biodiversity “hotspots” and has more native plant species than any other state in the U.S., a third of which are found nowhere else on Earth.
The field guide is organized by color and plant family and is illustrated with over two thousand photographs, including a range map for each described flower. It is very user-friendly as well as informative. It includes native and non-native annuals, perennials, and shrubs.
The fact that it contains information about non-natives, including whether they are invasive and how they affect the landscape, makes this guide extremely useful, as there are so many non-native species in natural areas but no good information about identifying them, except in this new book.
For more information about Wildflowers of California:
- CNPS website, Introducing “Wildflowers of California”: A Comprehensive Field Guide
- Timber Press, Publisher, Wildflowers of California
Resources
Protecting California's Renowned Plant Diversity, California Native Plant Society, April 2022
California’s dry regions are hotspots of plant diversity, by Robert Saunders, University of California, Berkeley, December 2017