Plant Lists

The USDA records all the plants that you would normally encounter in natural setting and will indicate whether they are native or introduced. We have a list of rare and endangered plants which you can look for on your hikes and check off on your life list. Here are lists that can be used to select native plants for the types of gardens you want to establish. In addition, we have lists of invasive plant that you want to avoid.

Going Native Guides

These downloadable guides are excellent places to start and can be obtained in print from most NPSNJ chapters at events.

Going Native Northern NJ
The Northern New Jersey Edition is based on the original brochure created by the Barnegat Bay Partnership for the Barnegat Bay watershed. Friends of Foote’s Pond Wood with the Native Plant Society of New Jersey modified the original to create the Northern New Jersey edition.

Going Native: A Guide to Landscaping with Native Plants in the Barnegat Bay Watershed
The original brochure from the Barnegat Bay Partnership and Jersey Friendly Yards.

Lists of Native Trees and Tall Shrubs by County

These lists can serve as a guide for selecting trees for your area. They were compiled from the US Department of Agriculture Plants Database.

In each Excel file, first tab (sheet) lists all the plants. Subsequent tabs each give plants only in the specified county. Each sheet gives the scientific name, common name, and list of all counties the plant is found in.

Counties – Atlantic to Essex 
Counties – Gloucester to Morris 
Counties – Ocean to Warren

Lists of All Native Vascular Plants by New Jersey County

New Jersey is a big state, with many diverse ecosystems displaying a wide variety of native flora. To help you navigate this vast array of plants, select the appropriate link below to find native plants for your New Jersey county. These lists are based on the USDA database.

Atlantic 
Bergen County 
Burlington County 
Camden County 
Cape May County 
Cumberland County 
Essex County 
Gloucester County 
Hudson County 
Hunterdon County 
Mercer County 
Middlesex County 
Monmouth County 
Morris County 
Ocean County 
Passaic County 
Salem County 
Somerset County 
Sussex County 
Union County 
Warren County

Native Plants for Gardens

Below are articles and lists giving guidance for native plants for various garden conditions or purposes. All suggested plants are native.

Beautiful Native Plants Year-Round

Native Plants for Deep Shade

Native Groundcovers including Grasses & Sedges for Sun & Shade

Native Plants for Wet Places

Easy to Grow Native Field Plants

Plants for Semishade & Dry Sites

Easy Plants for Semi-shade & Moist Sites

Plants for Woodland

Wildflowers for Shade

NJ Native Butterfly Host Plants

NJ_Butterfly_Nectar_Plants.xls

Plants for Pollinators

Deer “Resistant” Native Plants

Plant Lists of Invasive Species

Invasive Plant Species by Hubert Ling, Ph.D. (2019)

Twenty Most Invasive Plant Species from IPCNYS (2/24/03)

Invasive Plant List

What Are Invasive Plant Species Anyway?

Native Tree Recommendations

We have had many requests for native trees for landscaping. We have provided here lists to help start your search.

Small native trees for landscaping

Large and small native trees for landscaping

Street Trees for NJ outside the Pine Barrens

What Are Invasive Plant Species, Anyway?

List of NJ Native Threatened/Endangered Plants

NJDEP List of Endangered Plant Species and Plant Species of Concern June 2016

The USDA Plants Database

The USDA Plants Database is the most comprehensive and up-to-date source for native plant information. Here, you can search for plants by scientific and common name. The site indicates whether the plant is native to the lower 48 states and the plant’s distribution. It also provide the legal status of the plant as well as other information.

For convenience, lists from the USDA database have been compiled into Excel files which can be download from here.

Lists of All New Jersey Vascular Plants 
both Native and Introduced. 

All the plants are listed by:

  • Scientific name
  • Common name
  • Native – Introduced Status
  • Family
  • Category
  • National Wetland Indicator Status

The Excel files below are sortable/searchable/filterable.

NJ plants – sorted by Scientific Names(Excel .xlsx)

NJ plants – sorted by Common Names (Excel .xlsx)

NatureServe: Explorer

NatureServe is the definitive source for information on rare and endangered species and ecosystems in the Americas. This online guide provides information on the 100,000 species and ecosystems that we track.

This site provides an extensive online database of plants giving their distribution, native status, rarity status as well as other information which can be viewed in map form or downloaded in table form.

NatureServe: Search

NatureServe: Conservation Status Ranks

NatueServe: About the data

Another comprehensive site for plant distribution: BONAP

The Biota of North America Program-North American Vascular Flora. The site provides distribution maps of the plants 

BONAP home page www.bonap.org 

BONAP search by genus–>county level maps 

BONAP search by genus–>state level maps