About the Finder
Many of the nearly 1600 species in the database are commercially available, either as live plant or seed. Those species not in the trade, we offer as possibilities for growers to develop or gardeners to consider welcoming as volunteers. The database contains essential information for designing a high-quality habitat for pollinators, birds, beneficial insect predators, and other wildlife. You will also find additional information for planning, including plant height, flowering time, growth form, and geographical range. Learn about native plant landscaping and the benefits of using native vegetation on solar sites and other large-scale projects. For information about the Pollinator-Smart Program including large projects such as solar sites or rights-of-way, you can find more tools and information on the Pollinator Smart portal page.
The database contains nearly 1600 native plant species and excludes rare and introduced species. Depending on your interest, you will use either the Search by Characteristics form or the Search by Name form. This tool is primarily designed to help users find native plant species appropriate to a specific site location and ecological characteristics, therefore Search by Characteristics is recommended. When using Search by Name, it is important to enter the correct spelling of the species name. Some species have several recognized scientific names and names may change. The database can help you find the current scientific name recognized by the Flora of Virginia Project. See more detailed instruction here [link coming soon].
The following partners contributed to the development of Virginia Native Plant Finder:
Search by Characteristics
When starting a new search by characteristics, check that all the fields are set to the default “No Preference.” To generate a custom list of plants to suit your project needs, use the dropdown menus to fill in the Search by Characteristics form and click "Submit." You can leave any field set to the default “No Preference.” Making selections in more of the fields will result in a shorter but highly site-specific list of species.
For example, you might want a list of grasses (Plant Type) found in Halifax County (Locality) that are less than 3 feet tall (Max Height) and occur in a sunny (Light Requirements) and dry habitat (Moisture Requirements). Or you may want a list of ferns (Plant Type) that grow in moist soil (Moisture Requirements) in the shade (Light Requirements) in Chesterfield County (Locality).
You can only select one choice per field for your query. If you have a site with multiple habitats, we recommend doing a separate search for each habitat. For example, some of your site may be full sun and dry soil. Another part of your site may be full shade and moist soil.
A second option is to do a general search. Select your Locality and leave Soil Requirements and Light Requirements set to “No Preference.” Download the results as one spreadsheet and refine your list using your preferred spreadsheet software.
For each species in the result, you will see a table of characteristics. To see further information, such as names of plant providers and links to their websites, click "More details."
Query results are downloadable as a CSV file by clicking the Download Result button. Results are also printable from your browser's Print menu.
Find more information on native plant gardening at plantvirginianatives.org.
For questions or issues related to the finder, email pollinator.smart@dcr.virginia.gov.
Search by Name
For information about a particular native plant species, enter the Common or Scientific name in the appropriate field. As you type, you will see suggestions appear. You may choose one of the suggestions or continuing typing the complete name and click “Submit.”
Species names in the solar plant finder application are from the Flora of Virginia and the companion app (iOS and Android). Help for finding correct scientific names for plant species can also be found in the Digital Atlas of Virginia. Links to species corresponding Digital Atlas page are in query reports.
If your species search returns no results using the Common name field or Scientific Name field, it might be found by using the Synonym field. The Synonym field searches older or alternate scientific names. However, the database does not contain all possible alternate names so if your species name is not found here you can try searching the Digital Atlas of Virginia Flora for the Flora of Virginia species name. Please note that the Digital Atlas of Virginia Flora includes introduced and rare species not appropriate for planting projects.
If you are unable to find a specific native plant when searching a correctly spelled name, it is possible the species was purposely excluded from this database due to its rarity or other concerns and is not recommended for planting or growing. We suggest using the Search by Characteristic form to find similar plants for your site needs.
Query results are downloadable as a CSV file by clicking the Download Result button. Results are also printable from your browser's Print menu.
Find more information on native plant gardening at plantvirginianatives.org.
For questions or issues related to the finder, email pollinator.smart@dcr.virginia.gov.
Department of Conservation and Recreation
