Philadelphia’s Native Plants
Many of us want to plant native species in our gardens. They support ecosystem diversity and add beauty to our landscapes. But which plants are truly “native” to Philadelphia?
It’s a complicated question without a simple answer. This site provides one possible response, by transcribing and updating the work of Philadelphia botanist William P. C. Barton, who documented the plants that were present in Philadelphia and the surrounding area in 1818, the oldest record we have, and one that predates much of the region’s urbanization.
The spreadsheet created from Barton’s work is free to download and manipulate, and we hope that it provides valuable botanical information to Philadelphia area gardeners, landscape designers, ecologists, conservation biologists, botanists, and others.
