Resource Index
We are always looking for the best information on our native plants, and each of us digests information differently. The resources below are some of the favorites from WOWC and can help you find the information you need in a format that makes the most sense to you.
WOWC Resources
Native Plant Nurseries
The WOWC Native Plant Nurseries Page can help you find a local nursery for purchasing native plants.
For Educators and Parents
The WOWC School Gardens Committee provides helpful resources to parents and educators to aid in teaching young people the benefits of native plants.
Community Science
The WOWC Community Science Page is packed with useful resources and tools relating to citizen collection of data to be used for science.
Seeds to Community
WOWC Seeds to Community program has resources for each part of the plant reproduction cycle to help educate and share the joy of growing native plants from seed.
MSU Extension Resources
The MSU Extension office is the best place to get regionally appropriate information on native plants. There are dozens of great resources that they provide, including the following:
Plants and Ecosystem Services
MSU Extension Native Plants and Ecosystem Services has a great set of localized resources including a intuitive plant search tool and a Southern Lower Michigan regional plant list, among others.
Natural Communities
MSU Extension Michigan Natural Features Inventory which has information on Michigan’s Natural Communities, where they exist, and what plants are part of these communities.
Michigan Circa 1800 Viewer
The Michigan Vegetation Circa 1800 Map shows a unique look into what the vegetation was like before the year 1800 and can be a useful tool when considering what to plant for habitat restoration.
Invasive Plant Identification
MSU Extension Michigan Natural Features Inventory has an extensive Field Identification Guide to Invasive Plants in Michigan’s Natural Communities. It includes all the information you need to identify and control invasive species.
Native Plant Finders
The following “plant finders” offer a way for you to find plants based on criteria like state, county, zip code and plant characteristics.
BONAP North American Plant Atlas
The North American Plant Atlas (NAPA) provided by BONAP includes detailed maps of geographical data on native plant species. Many of the maps that you may see elsewhere are sourced from this site. It is useful when you are trying to be intentional about planting only specific regional plants for our county, which we all should be doing!
Michigan Flora
The University of Michigan Herbarium Michigan Flora site has a wealth of information collected from real observations of native plants. The search tool has the ability to search for a specific species within Wayne County (or any county in MI), as well as search for all species within a county. There are observational photos of most species which can be helpful for identification.
Michigan Native Plants Database
The Michigan Native Plants Database is from The Native Plant Nursery LLC in Ann Arbor, MI. The database includes lots of great information on MI natives and allows for filtering based on a number of characteristics including size, growing conditions, bloom color and bloom time. Something to note when browsing this page is that the default search only returns plants that are available at their nursery. Select ‘search all Michigan native plants’ in the top right of the page to get information on all Michigan native plants.
NWF Native Plant Finder
The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) Native Plant Finder allows you to search for native plants by zip code and save plants to your own list. Beyond search by zip code, there are limited filtering and search capabilities.
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Plant Database
The Lady Bird Johnson native plant database on wildflower.org is a great place to search for Michigan native plants if you’re looking for more images of each species. If you want to create any media with pictures this database is useful, as many pictures are unrestricted for news, educational, scientific and personal use. There is plenty of useful species information as well, though sometimes it is a bit harder to navigate the information and as it is based out of Texas, the information isn’t as region specific.
Native Plant Lists
These resources all contain curated plant lists that are designed around a specific region, environment, or ecological function.
Homegrown National Park Keystone Plant Guides
The Homegrown National Park organization provides helpful species lists organized by ecoregion. The ones pertaining to our region are enumerated below:
Container Gardening with Keystones
Keystone Trees and Shrubs
NWF Keystone Native Plants
The National Wildlife Federation provides a keystone plant guide for our ecoregion (Ecoregion 8). It includes a general list, and then two separate “Top 30 Keystone Plant” lists for each butterfly and moths and pollen specialist bees. If you are looking to maximize your ecological benefit, this could be a great place to narrow down your plant list.
Native Plants for Bird-Friendly Landscapes
The Michigan Audubon Society has a downloadable PDF pamphlet with lists of native bird-friendly trees, shrubs, wildflowers, grasses & sedges, ground covers & vines, raingarden and pond edge plants. These lists can be a great starting point to picking plants for your bird-friendly native garden.
Xerces Pollinator-Friendly Native Plant List
The Xerces Society is a leader in Invertebrate Conservation and provides native plant lists for each geographical region. Their Great Lakes Region Plant List is a great place to start looking for the most ecologically beneficial plants. This is just a starting point, and each species would need to be checked with another tool like BONAP NAPA to determine its native status in your area.
North Oakland Wild Ones Powerhouse Native Plants
North Oakland (County, MI) Wild Ones (NOWO) chapter has a handy list showing their “Powerhouse Native Plants for Michigan Landscaping”. It lists some of the best host and pollen specialist bee species for North Oakland County, MI, which being our northern neighbor, has extremely similar conditions to Wayne County.
Top 10 Easy-to-find Native Plants for Shorelines
This article by Kristine Hahn, Michigan State University Extension is a quick read on some of the best bang-for-your-buck plants to include in your native MI shoreline landscape.
Garden Planning
These resources are related to garden layout, planning, design and species selection.
Michigan Audubon Native Garden Design for the Birds!
The Michigan Audubon Society has a downloadable PDF pamphlet with native garden designs for a number of landscapes with layout and species lists. All of their designs are aimed at benefiting birds, though they are ecologically beneficial for other wildlife as well!
Wild Ones Garden Designs
Wild Ones has a number of native garden designs for specific regions of the US. The designs that land closest to Wayne County would be the Grand Rapids, MI designs and the Toledo, OH designs. Both of these have wonderful inspiration for how to design your garden to be both beneficial and aesthetically pleasing.
Rochester Pollinators Garden Guide
Rochester Pollinators has a great native plant garden guide that includes multiple garden layouts and plans as well as species lists and more!
Wild Ones Container Planting Guide
Wild Ones has a great guide on gardening using containers in small spaces or urban settings. It includes a couple of species lists as well as growing tips and tricks.
Other Resources
Friends of the Rouge
Friends of the Rouge is another great regional organization that has wonderful resources and programs mostly around green storm water infrastructure. The DIY Raingarden Guidance they provide is a great starting point if you are interested in planting natives for the purpose of improving your impact on local watershed.
Resources by Heather Holm
Heather Holm has a plethora of free resources available on her plant lists, fact sheets and posters page. These range from individual insect fact sheets to regional native plant lists for wasps and beneficial insects.
Additionally, the soft landings guide has some great information on how to help invertebrates stay safe during vulnerable stages of their life cycle.
Xerces Nesting and Overwintering Guide
The Xerces Society has a free PDF publication on how to create nesting and overwintering habitat in your garden to maximize its ecological benefit. This guide outlines how you can change your landscaping maintenance practices to fulfill the needs of pollinators and other wildlife.
Prairie Up
Prairie Up and Benjamin Vogt have a wealth of resources including prairie garden design resources, courses, and guides as well as native plants, city + HOA code and more.