ask PHS

Do you have a list of native plants of Philadelphia?

I have been searching high and low for a Philadelphia native plants list. Do you by chance have a list or any suggestions as to who would have one? I am focusing some research solely on Philadelphia natives and thus, Southeastern PA native lists are close but also could potentially include plants that are not native to the city of Philadelphia. Any help is very much appreciated!

Answer

For an extensive list, see the Fairmount Park Restoration page on the Academy of Natural Sciences website:

http://www.ansp.org/research/environmental-research/projects/fairmount-park/

On this page, you will find links to the park master plan for environmental restoration. You should look in particular at Volume III, Appendices. In this volume, look at Appendix A-1, Flora. You will see the plant lists and each plant is designated as ‘I’ = Introduced; ‘N’ = native to Philadelphia; ‘A’ = native to US, not Philadelphia…etc. This appendix is several pages long.

Here are more links, with smaller numbers of native plants listed in them:

See the plant list for Concourse Lake, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia:

http://www.concourselake.org/

See the plants listed in the Wissahickon Restoration Volunteers page here:

http://wissahickonrestorationvolunteers.org/resources/native_plants/

Hope this helps.

-je