The Natural Resource Conservation Service, part of the Department of Agriculture,  maintains an extensive database of plants for the entire country.    This database can be searched by distribution, taxonomy, life form and US nativity, and legal status.  They also maintain and generate data reports in specialized areas.

Click on their logo below to go to their main website.

Click here to go directly to the advanced search page for the PLANTS Database

The images in PLANTS are free for scientific and educational uses provided the photographer (if known), copyright holder, institution, and the PLANTS Database are properly credited. Here are two examples of appropriate acknowledgment:

İM. Kat Anderson
NPDC @ PLANTS		 Robert Mohlenbrock
USDA, NRCS, 1997 - Northeastern Wetlands Flora @ PLANTS

Some of the images in PLANTS are copyrighted; the rest are in the public domain. If you wish to use them commercially, please contact Lincoln Moore (lmoore@npdc.usda.gov) for contact information for the photographer. Linking to images requires no permission, and we welcome it.

Please cite the National PLANTS Database as:

USDA, NRCS. 2002. The PLANTS Database, Version 3.5 (http://plants.usda.gov). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.