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Methodology

Where the facts come from

Every plant fact in a plan carries the source it came from, and every one of those sources is named here. Where two disagree, the plan keeps both and says which it used.

USDA PLANTS Database

Mature size, growth rate, bloom period, soil texture and pH ranges, spread behavior. Federal, public domain.

https://plants.usda.gov/

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Native Plant Database

Light and soil-moisture requirements, state-by-state native distribution, toxicity warnings, larval hosts. A program of the University of Texas at Austin.

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/

Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, Pollinator Program

Pollinator value ratings, as published on Wildflower Center species pages.

https://www.xerces.org/

Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS)

Accepted names, synonymy and taxonomic serial numbers.

https://www.itis.gov/

US EPA, Level III Ecoregions

The ecoregion each county falls in.

https://www.epa.gov/eco-research/ecoregions

US Census Bureau, TIGER/Line

County boundaries and interior points.

https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/tiger-line-file.html

State agencies of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont

Prohibited and noxious plant lists, each recorded with the date it was read. A species a state has listed is excluded from what this tool offers there.

What is not used

No plant fact in this product is written from memory or generated. A field with no citation cannot be saved, which is checked on every build rather than trusted. Where a source publishes a rating whose definition does not match what this tool means by it, that rating is refused rather than reinterpreted, and the refusal is recorded with the evidence behind it.

None of these organizations has reviewed or endorsed this product. Their published data is used with attribution; their written work is theirs and stays on their own sites.

Plants are excluded here when a state's published prohibited or noxious plant list names them, as of the date recorded with each list. Those lists change, states do not agree with each other, and local rules can be stricter than the state's. Nothing here is legal advice or a determination that any plant may be sold, planted, or moved where you live; check the current list published by your state before you buy.