Find plantsSearch the database by any part of a name. It matches common names, scientific names and PLANTS symbols at once, so "milkweed", "Asclepias" and "ASCLE" all find the milkweeds, and an older scientific name finds the plant it was renamed to. Every result carries its symbol, its botanical name without the naming authority, and a link to its page, so this is the step that turns what somebody typed into something the other steps can use.
Get a plantUSDA's record for one plant: its accepted scientific name, its common names, its family and genus, whether it is a tree, a shrub or a herb, whether it lives one year or many, and whether it is native or introduced in each region of the United States and Canada. USDA's fact sheet and plant guide PDFs come back as links when it has them, along with a photograph and the page on plants.usda.gov. It also reports which of the other steps will find anything for this plant, so a workflow asks only the questions that have answers.
Get growing conditionsWhat USDA records about how a plant grows: the soil textures and pH range it tolerates, how much drought, shade, salt and fire it takes, how fast it grows and how tall it gets, when it blooms and what colour, how it is propagated and what it is used for. Up to 81 attributes, grouped the way USDA groups them, with the dozen a workflow usually branches on lifted to the top so drought tolerance is a field rather than a row to go hunting for.
Check a plant's legal statusAnswer "may I plant this here, and must I remove it?" in one step. USDA keeps three separate lists - the noxious weeds a state regulates by law, the plants it publishes as invasive, and the species protected as threatened or endangered - and this reads all three and reports them together, with a one-sentence summary you can put straight into a message. Narrow it to a state to get the answer for that state alone.
List a state's regulated plantsA state's whole noxious-weed list, or its whole list of plants published as invasive, each plant with the class or category that state gives it and the older names it also goes by. This is the list to check a nursery catalogue, a seed mix or a landscaping plan against. Choose the United States to read the federal noxious weed list, which applies everywhere.
Get wetland statusA plant's wetland indicator status - how reliably it turns up in a wetland rather than on dry ground - for every region of the National Wetland Plant List, or for one region you choose. The bare codes come back with what each one means in words, so the answer reads as "usually occurs in wetlands" rather than as an abbreviation. The same plant is rated differently in different regions, which is why the region matters.
Get a plant's other namesEvery name USDA files under one plant: its accepted scientific name, the older scientific names it has been published under, its common names, and the subspecies and varieties named beneath it. This is the step for cleaning up a plant list - feed in whatever name a spreadsheet or a supplier used and get back the name it should be, plus the other spellings to match on.
Get photosThe photographs on a plant's USDA page as URLs you can put in an email, a card or a report, in four sizes, each with the photographer, where it was taken, whether it is copyrighted and a ready-made credit line.
Get fact sheets and linksEverywhere to read more about a plant: USDA's own fact sheet and plant guide PDFs, and every resource its page links out to - state extension fact sheets, the Forest Service's fire effects reports, herbarium records, invasive species profiles. This is what to attach when a workflow emails a landowner or a crew about a species.
