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Native Plant Society of Texas

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Table of Contents

Shortcodes

Shortcodes are a great way to quickly and easily get custom functionality on your post or page.  You can access information stored on the site, like the Native Plant Database.  If you have an idea for a shortcode that would help your organization, please contact the webmaster!

You can place shortcodes in any Elementor block, like text editors, or use the dedicated shortcode widget. Remember, all shortcodes must be enclosed in brackets: [my-shortcode].

Plant Search Cards

This shortcode will generate a group of cards that matches the search parameter that you enter.  The more specific your search, the fewer cards that will match.  This is great for displaying a single card that matches a common or scientific name, or if you want to show all of the Salvia family of plants.

				
					native-plant-search search="search term"

Examples

				
					native-plant-search search="big bluestem"

Big Bluestem

Andropogon gerardii
 
				
					native-plant-search search="juniperus"

Ashe Juniper

Juniperus ashei

Alligator Juniper

Juniperus deppeana

Oneseed Juniper

Juniperus monosperma

Rocky Mountain Juniper

Juniperus scopulorum

Eastern Red Cedar

Juniperus virginiana

Cedar Sage

Salvia roemeriana

Plant Field Query Cards

This shortcode will generate a group of cards that matches the native plant custom field that you enter.  Unlike the native plant search shortcode, this will only search the specific field(s) you enter.  If you use more than one field, it will only return plants that match all filters.  This is great for showing recommended plants for a specific ecoregion and characteristic.

Currently, only Ecoregion, Wildlife Benefit, Water, and Light can be filtered. For more filter options, please contact the webmaster to request them.

				
					native-plant-custom-query ecoregion="search term" wildlife="search term" water="search term" light="search term"

Examples

				
					native-plant-custom-query ecoregion="cross timbers" wildlife="moths"

Prairie Acacia

Acacia angustissima

Box Elder

Acer negundo

False Indigo Bush

Amorpha fruticosa

Indian Plantain

Arnoglossum plantagineum

Green Milkweed

Asclepias viridis

Poverty Weed

Baccharis neglecta

Sideoats Grama

Bouteloua curtipendula

False Boneset

Brickellia eupatorioides

Trumpet Creeper Vine

Campsis radicans

Buttonbush

Cephalanthus occidentalis

Texas Redbud

Cercis canadensis var. texensis

Desert Willow

Chilopsis linearis

Sorrelvine

Cissus trifoliata

Angel Trumpet

Datura wrightii

Prairie Larkspur

Delphinium carolinianum

Common Persimmon

Diospyros virginiana

Horsecrippler Cactus

Echinocactus texensis

Virginia Wildrye

Elymus virginicus

Red Lovegrass

Eragrostis secundiflora

Hairy Sunflower

Helianthus hirsutus

Red Yucca

Hesperaloe parviflora

Possumhaw Holly

Ilex decidua

Narrowleaf Puccoon

Lithospermum incisum

Coral Honeysuckle

Lonicera sempervirens

California Loosestrife

Lythrum californicum

White Four O'Clock

Mirabilis albida

Wild Four O'clock

Mirabilis nyctaginea

Seep Muhly

Muhlenbergia reverchonii

Baby Blue Eyes

Nemophila phacelioides

Western Primrose

Oenothera hartwegii

Missouri Primrose

Oenothera macrocarpa

Diamond Petal Primrose

Oenothera rhombipetala

Witchgrass

Panicum capillare

Virginia Creeper

Parthenocissus quinquefolia

Wild Foxglove

Penstemon cobaea

Fragrant Phlox

Phlox pilosa

American Pokeweed

Phytolacca americana

Scurfy Pea

Psoralidium tenuiflorum

Prairie Petunia

Ruellia humilis

Azure Sage

Salvia azurea

Prairie Goldenrod

Solidago nemoralis

Stiff Goldenrod

Solidago rigida

Heath Aster

Symphyotrichum ericoides

Lanceleaf Aster

Symphyotrichum lanceolatum

Fall Aster

Symphyotrichum oblongifolium

Willowleaf Aster

Symphyotrichum praealtum

American Germander

Teucrium canadense

American Elm

Ulmus americana

Mexican Buckeye

Ungnadia speciosa

Cowpen Daisy

Verbesina encelioides

Arkansas Yucca

Yucca arkansana

Pale Yucca

Yucca pallida

Mountain Pinks

Zeltnera beyrichii
 
				
					native-plant-custom-query ecoregion='edwards plateau' water='low' light="shade"

Wild Red Columbine

Aquilegia canadensis

Horseherb

Calyptocarpus vialis

Chile Pequin

Capsicum annuum

Spurred Butterfly Pea

Centrosema virginianum

Inland Sea Oats

Chasmanthium latifolium

Alabama Lipfern

Cheilanthes alabamensis

Roughleaf Dogwood

Cornus drummondii

Cockspur Hawthorn

Crataegus crus-galli

Elbowbush

Forestiera pubescens

Hairy Sunflower

Helianthus hirsutus

Balsam Gourd

Ibervillea lindheimeri

Yaupon Holly

Ilex vomitoria

Cut Rice Grass

Leersia monandra

Yellow Prairie Flax

Linum berlandieri var. berlandieri

Turk's Cap

Malvaviscus arboreus

Pyramid Flower

Melochia pyramidata

Golden Groundsel

Packera obovata

Seven-leaf Creeper

Parthenocissus heptaphylla

Virginia Creeper

Parthenocissus quinquefolia

Wafer Ash

Ptelea trifoliata

Aromatic Sumac

Rhus aromatica

Pigeonberry

Rivina humilis

Drummond's Wild Petunia

Ruellia drummondiana

Wild Petunia

Ruellia nudiflora

Scarlet Sage

Salvia coccinea

Heartleaf Skullcap

Scutellaria ovata

Southwestern Bristlegrass

Setaria scheelei

Coralberry

Symphoricarpos orbiculatus

Frostweed

Verbesina virginica

Prairie Lily

Zephyranthes drummondii

NPSOT Map

The NPSOT map is a flexible way to display chapters, ecoregions, chapter gardens, and other information on the website.  To use the map on your page or post, follow these directions:

1) Create a container to hold the map.
2) Add two widgets the the container, a shortcode widget, and a HTML widget.
3) Set the z-index of the container to 5. This will keep the map from being on top of other elements, like headers or menus. This option can be found in the left panel of the Elementor editor, in the “advanced” section.
4) In the shortcode widget, add the shortcode [nmap] and nothing else. In the HTML widget, use the following code: 
				
					<style>
 #map-view{
     height: 500px;
}
</style>
<script>
    window.addEventListener('load', 
    NMap({
        zoom: 5.75, //sets the inital zoom level of the map.
        center: [31.75, -99.9], //sets the center point of the map.  Use https://www.latlong.net/ to find these coordinates.
        chapterLoad: true, //loads the chapter pins & ecoregions.  Display is toggled off by default
        chapterShow: true,  //shows the chapter pins & ecoregions as soon as they load. Requires chapterLoad to work.
        eco3Load: true, //loads the level 3 ecoregions.  Display is toggled off by default
        eco3Show: true, //shows the level 3 ecoregions as soon as they load. Requires eco3Load to work.
        eco4Load: true, //loads the level 4 ecoregions.  Display is toggled off by default
        eco4Show: true, //shows the level 4 ecoregions as soon as they load. Requires eco4Load to work.
        NICE: true, //loads and displays all the NICE nursery pins.
        garden: true, //loads and displays all the chapter demo garden pins.
        monarch: true, //loads and displays all the I-35 monarch waystation pins.
        native: true, //loads and displays all the native plant garden pins.
        speaker: true, //loads and displays all the Speaker's Bureau speaker pins.
    })
  )
</script>

5) Now you can customize the map to fit your needs.  The parameters passed into the NMap function in the HTML widget can be removed for items you don’t want to see.  If you remove a “true” parameter, it will remove that option from being displayed on the map.  “Zoom” and “center” can be adjusted to center the map on your desired location.  NOTE: Only one map per page or post at this time.  If you require more than one map on the page, let the Webmaster know.

Examples

				
					<style>
 #map-view{
     height: 400px;
}
</style>
<script>
    window.addEventListener('load', 
    NMap({
        chapterLoad: true, 
        chapterShow: true,
        eco3Load: true, //because eco3Show is not used, the ecoregions will load, but not show by default.
    })
  )
</script>

Plant Sale

If you want to use the Native Plant Database to help build you a great looking list of plants for your plant sale, follow these steps.

Select plants from the database to show up in your plant sale.

This will be the most time consuming part of the process.  Hopefully your list of available plants doesn’t change much from year-to-year, so after the initial setup, managing changes will be easy. To begin, navigate to the administration area of the staging site, and select Native Plants on the left hand menu.

Click on the plant you would like to add to your plant sale.  This will bring up the plant’s edit page.  You can select either “plant sale 1” or “plant sale 2”. Some chapters use these for spring or fall sales.  You can utilize the different choices however you like.  If you only have one sale per year, there is no need to select both plant sale choices.  Once you are done, hit “update” in the top right corner.  Don’t see your organization?  Contact the webmaster to be added.

If you want to see all the plants you’ve selected, use the plant sale filter at the top of the page.

Add the plant sale shortcode to your page

You have two options to display your plant sale information. Plants can be displayed as cards, categorized by their growth form, or as a table, alphabetized by common name. Feel free to use one, or both.  Remember to enclose your shortcode in brackets [my-shortcode].

				
					plant-sale-query //will display plant cards organized by growth form
plant-sale-query-table //will display plants in alphabetical order by scientific name

Add a new native plant to the database

Do you have a plant native to Texas that’s not already in the database? Adding new plants is easy utilizing our plant entry form.  When you are on the staging site, and logged in, you should see a message at the top of the database landing page. 

If you don’t see the link, navigate to www.npsot.org/resources/native-plants/native-plant-form/.

Please fill out the form as completely as possible.  The Native Plant Committee would love to help you find a detail for a plant you would like to submit, but does not have the manpower to research every plant.  You are encouraged to include as many pictures as you have on the form.

If you have notes for the Native Plant committee, please include them in the last input field on the form.  This information will not be attached to your submission in the database, but will be emailed to the Native Plant Committee.  This is best for questions you have for the submitted plant, or photo credits.

When you hit submit, the plant will not be immediately live.  Please give the Native Plant committee a few days to review and publish your addition.

Plant Info Sheets

The Native Plant Database generates easy to use plant information sheets with QR codes, current as of dates, links to our website, and more.  Be sure to print plant sheets from the production website (npsot.org) to ensure that QR codes and URLs are correct.

The exact instructions for this process will vary by operating system and browser.  The best results for this process are currently on Google Chrome, so that is the recommended browser for this process. If you are having trouble, please contact the webmaster.

When you are on a plant page that you’d like to print as a plant sheet, hit ctrl+p or cmd+p, depending on your operating system.  This will bring up the print preview window.  Click “more settings” on the right hand side of the window, and change “scaling” to “custom”.  Each plant may be slightly different due to varying content, but a good starting point is a scaling of “65.”  At this point, you can fine tune the scaling to fit all the information without spilling onto another page.  Your preview pane should look like the image below.

Notice that the website’s header and footer are gone.  The NPSOT logo, current as of date, and URL for our site are added.  The QR code that is added to the map will bring users to that plant’s page in the database.  Print, and repeat the process for any other plant sheets you need.

Plant Database Excel Export

If you’d like to output the entire Native Plant Database, or a portion of it, as an Excel sheet, follow these directions.

The table view of the native plant database is found here. At the top of the page are some blue “quick filters.”  These filters are a one button push way to filter for common searches.  If you’d like a quick filter built for your organization, contact the webmaster.

Each column heading has a filter box to narrow data based on that column’s data.  For example, if you only want plants from a specific ecoregion, type it in the filter box in the ecoregion column.  You can apply multiple column filters, and only plants that match all filters will be returned.

Columns can be resized by dragging the edge of the column.  Columns can be rearranged by clicking and holding a column title, and moving it left or right.  Columns can be hidden by clicking the three dots next to the column name, and unchecking the columns you would like to be hidden.

Once you have the plant data filtered for your specific need, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the “Download CSV” or “Download XLSX” button.  You can always download the entire database by applying no filters before hitting the download button.  

Your file can be opened in Excel or Google Docs once downloaded, to meet your needs.

About the Region

Fall Symposium 2025 Logo - Teach for the Future

Salado, the location of our Fall 2025 Symposium, lies at the intersection of two ecoregions: the Edwards Plateau (Limestone Cut Plain) and Blackland Prairie (Northern Blackland Prairie).

The Edwards Plateau area is also called the Hill Country; however, this general term covers a much larger area extending farther north. Spring-fed creeks are found throughout the region; deep limestone canyons, rivers, and lakes (reservoirs) are common. Ashe juniper is perhaps the most common woody species found throughout the region. Additional woody species include various species of oak, with live oak (Quercus fusiformis) being the most common. Sycamores (Platanus occidentalis) and bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) border waterways. This area is well known for its spring wildflower displays, though they may be viewed in spring, late summer, and fall, as well. According to Texas Parks and Wildlife, average annual rainfall in the Edwards Plateau ranges from 15 to 34 inches.

The Blackland Prairie extends from the Red River south to San Antonio, bordered on the west by the Edwards Plateau and the Cross Timbers, and on the east by the Post Oak Savannah. Annual rainfall averages 30 to 40 inches, with higher averages to the east. This region is dominated by prairie species. The most common grass species include little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) and Indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans) in the uplands and switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) in the riparian areas and drainages. Common herbaceous flowering plants include salvias, penstemons, and silphiums. This area has suffered greatly from overgrazing and agricultural use. Few intact areas remain, though many of the plants can be found along county roadsides throughout the region.

Our fall Symposium host chapter, the Tonkawa Chapter, includes both of these ecoregions.

Source: Wildflowers of Texas by Michael Eason