Photo by Beth Kleinpeter.
Days ago, when catching up on one of my favorite garden podcasts, A Way to Garden by New York Times columnist Margaret Roach, I happened upon an episode with Rebecca McMackin, another powerhouse of horticultural knowledge within the realm of ecological thought. Their brief but informative conversation pertained to online plant resources in the current era of dependency on information generated by AI and shared via social media—a time when the web has captured our minds entirely, or are at least giving a solid college try at it.
They discussed a problem I’ve also observed increasingly often: the vast amount of totally false and incorrect horticultural information available on the Internet.
As I said in July’s column of “Our Sustainable Garden,” (read it here) I believe books will forever be the absolute best resource when it comes to acquiring plant knowledge, but I know better than to stand proudly upon my soapbox. Our modern Internet Age has its positives, too. When you know where to look, and who to trust, the web offers excellent resources to place in your toolbox that are perhaps less cumbersome than a canvas tote of hardcovers (many of you are likely reading this very story online as we speak).
The following is a curation of digital resources created and sustained by experts in the field, years of studies, and research-based knowledge continually checked and balanced. Many of these sites are maintained by old-school institutions whose goal is to study and share knowledge, and others by passionate observers and scientists who have dedicated their work to the study of native flora. Below, I've curated a selection of resources I've personally found useful, as well as have been recommended to me by experts like Roach and McMackin.
Societies
You can find a society out there dedicated to any plant group you can fathom. I love utilizing plant society resources and have often leaned on their knowledge when it comes to difficult ID or disease questions. Often, there are local chapters you can connect with in person and even join. Every single time I’ve reached out to these groups, I have gotten a quick, enthusiastic, and informative response. Why not contact the nerds who would want to talk about their favorite plant species the most? Just a week ago, when a tree friend and I could not identify an Asiatic oak for the life of us, I contacted the International Oak Society for help. Within hours, I received a request for photos, and they confirmed the identification: Quercus glauca. Like I said, there is likely a society for any group of plants you are interested in. The following are a handful that I have learned considerably from:
International Oak Society
American Fern Society
Azalea Society of America
American Camellia Society
americancamellias.com/education-and-camellia-care
Herb Society of America
Louisiana Native Plant Society
Folsom Native Plant Society
Government Agencies
Two government databases that I frequent are the ones organized by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and Wetlands Aquatic Research Center within the US Geological Survey. Another incredibly cool reservoir of knowledge I learned about from McMakin is the USDA’s Silvics of North America website—a treasure trove for tree enthusiasts.
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
Wetlands Aquatic Research Center
USDA Silvics of North America
Plant Finders & Databases
And here: a grand list of my favorite plant finders. For a decade, my most used native plant database has been the one operated by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. I once met the man who runs it, all on his own, Joe Marcus, and it was as if I met my celebrity hero. The fact that one man is behind the database blew my mind. Another cool resource from the list below is the Audubon Society’s database, through which you can look up a native plant and learn directly how it benefits birds. There is plenty of overlap between these sites, but they all have various and differing findings to offer, including plantfinders, range maps, scientific research, and so on.
Go Botany
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
The Biota of North America Program
Missouri Botanical Garden
Native Plant Society of America Database
nanps.org/native-plants-database
Audubon Society
Native Plant Finder
nativeplantfinder.nwf.org/plants
Mount Cuba Center
mtcubacenter.org/native-plantfinder
Dave’s Garden Botanary
And I save my favorite, and newest, for last. Thanks to McMakin, my latest obsession is the “Botanary” from Dave’s Garden. With this search engine, you can type in any botanical/Latin word, and it will not only give you the English translation, but also various examples of the word in use, as well as its pronunciation. The more knowledge one gathers of the Latin names of plants and their families, the more one is able to understand and communicate about plants as a whole. It’s like a secret code, delineating the descriptive patterns Linnaeus used in the system he created hundreds of years ago. The Dave’s Garden website as a whole, aside from The Botanary, is an incredible wealth of plant, insect, and bird information.
Dave’s Garden, Botanary
