Native Plant Database

Does anyone know of a good native plant database? I live in northern Illinois and am trying to find out what aquatics are endemic...this is proving to be more time consuming that I had thought. Does anyone have any book recommendations or websites that come to mind? I just set up a stream tank with a trio of greenside darters and 2 species of shiner and am looking for some good literature on plants that I could use in such a biotype.

The best database I know of is run by the USDA. You can find it at http://plants.usda.gov. Of course, I just tried to search it for Illinois plants, and it seems to be down.

How to find wetland/aquatic species lists on this site:

• When you get to the site, in the left hand column, clike "advanced search".
• You will select various critera. Note that next to each, it has a box for "display in report". Check this if you want to view the result, otherwise it uses it as a criteria but does not tell you the result.
• You can select multiple criteria in a category by holding the control key.
• Select the state(s) of interest
• In the taxonomy section, you probably want to leave the selections as "any". (But the plant category criteria is a cool feature.)
• Under "life form and US Nativity", leave the first 2 as "any" and then select "native to the US".
• Under "legal status", select anything you are interested in, but the key to making this a wetland/aquatic list is selecting "OLB (obligate wetland)" in the last category. This means that you are inerested in plants that MUST live in wetlands/aquatic habitats.
• In the "additional information" section, I'd leave them as "any", but click on the "display in report" tabs, so you can see the information they have on the species they list.
• Hit "Display Report Now".

If you are really interested in refining a plant search for some reason, there are cool characteristics data in part B of the selection criteria. They don't have all this information on all species, though, so use with a grain of salt.

Note that the list includes both emergent and submergent plants, and will include plants not suited to an aquarium. You will still have to do some refining on your own to narrow the list down, but it's a start.

It's not working for me either, but thanks so much! Once they sort it out it looks like a good reference.

Plants of the Chicago Region, by Floyd Swink and Gerould Wilhelm

There are some issues with the USDA database. Perhaps best to attempt to procure a copy of the above. Heads up, Mr. Wilhelm is in the process of a revision however either the second or third edition should meet your needs.

Additionally, there is a publication out there for DuPage Co. I can't for the life of me recall the title or the author but I know it is out there for sure. I saw it, I had it in my hands. I believe this particular publication might prove to be an invaluable tool for you if you were in a position to track it down.

Here is a nice document for some Texas plants, not all inclusive but a good start. Is comes from http://www.gctts.org/