• Plant Guides

    Duskywing butterfly on yellow wild indigo – DMcGrady

•  The Rhode Island Wild Plant Society advocates an ECOLOGICAL APPROACH to your garden, which means using native plants well adapted to your particular growing conditions. We recommend using plants native to Rhode Island and the larger ecoregion #59 to which Rhode Island belongs. Creating and maintaining healthy, diverse ecosystems is the goal.  As plants sourced from local wild populations are the most suited for this purpose RIWPS is currently engage in an in a long term initiative, ReSeeding Rhode Island  to increase the supply of these plants.

Learn for about the ECOLOGICAL APPROACH from our partner organization Grown Native Massachusetts.

•  What is the right native plant for your landscape?  We recommend 2 online guides, searchable by plant type, size and a variety of growing conditions.  Our other resources address specific aspects of ecological gardening.

•  We cultivate native plants through our Seed Starters Program and offer a number of native species at our plant sales.

Choosing the right native plant for the right place in your landscape

image of eco regions of New England Native Plant Trust Garden Plant Finder is comprehensive and regularly updated. Plants can be searched by ecoregion, types, growing conditions, a host of other plant characteristics including the specific ecological value of the plant. Includes images.

When searching we urge you to select plants native to our ecoregion (# 59 – Northeast Coastal Zone) and straight species vs. cultivars or specimen in order to maximize the ecological contribution of the plant to your landscape. 

URI, RI Native Plant Guide focuses on a subset of the 1,300 species listed in 1998 edition of Vascular Flora of Rhode Island. Selected for their ornamental value, potential in restoration projects and ease of propagation plants can be searched by type, characteristics, ecological value as well as growing conditions.

RIWPS also offers Cultivation Notes on a variety of plants.

NOT SURE HOW TO EVEN BEGIN A NATIVE PLANT GARDEN?

How to Start a Native Plant Garden from Scratch offers an step be step approach beginning with how to identify the growing conditions through the elements of  basic garden design and then recommendations about using native plants in general.

NOT SURE ECOLOGICAL GARDENING IS IMPORTANT?

∴ Not sure ecological gardening is important? See Doug Tallamy’s online lecture Nature’s Best Hope based on his book with the same name.  Excellent resource that offers many arguments and supporting research for the importance of “ecological gardening”.

WHAT ARE IMPORTANT ECOLOGICAL FALL GARDENING PRACTICES?

– Put Down Those Pruners: Pollinators Need Your ‘Garden Garbage! or Leave the Leaves both by Justin Wheeler from Xerces Society

INTERESTED IN STARTING NATIVE PLANTS FROM SEEDS?

Sexual reproduction – through seeds – creates variation between individual plants, as any single plant adapts differently in its ability to cope with environmental stress such as heat, drought, flooding and other disturbances. Genetic variation is a species’ best strategy for adapting to future environmental conditions.  Seed propagation maintains the genetic diversity.  To preserve the biodiversity of our habitats use seeds from straight  (vs cultivar, nativar or hybrid) RI native plant species, sources as locally as possible.

Growing Native Plants from Seed, Wildflora RI
How to Grow Natives from Seed, Maine Wild Seed Project 

NEED AN ANSWER TO A GARDENING QUESTIONS?

The URI Gardening and Environmental Hotline is staffed by trained URI Master Gardeners who are available in person, by phone and via email to help you identify plants and troubleshoot problems in the garden. Snap a photo with your smartphone and send it to gardener@uri.edu, or call (401) 874-4836 to speak to someone directly. Need a free pH soil test? Pop in at the URI Mallon Outreach Center to see us during hotline hours (Monday – Thursday from 9AM – 2PM).

Other Resources

Plants for Pollinators & Biodiversity

Which plants support the most butterflies, moths, birds and other forms of wildlife?  In his books Bringing Nature Home, and Natures Best Hope, Doug Tallamy offers a list of plants to create landscapes that support biodiversity as well as proposing very specific steps for maximizing the impact of individual landscapes to restore and maintain larger functioning ecosystems.

His books, articles, videos can be found on Homegrown National Park website.  HOMEGROWN NATIONAL PARK™ is a grassroots call-to-action to restore biodiversity and ecosytems functions by planting native plants and creating new ecological networks. Explore these resources including the benefits that specific species offer to insects and birds. Add your landscape to this effort.  Put yourself on the map!

Also watch the recorded, Conversation with Doug Tallamy, hosted by RIWPS member Anne Raver on February 7, 2021


The National Wildlife Federation offers Native Plant Guide listing the plants that attract the highest numbers of butterflies and moths to feed birds and other wildlife where you live. Just put in your zip code.


Audubon Society Native Plant Database Audubon Society Native Plant Database. Search by zip code, type of plant, type of bird.  Includes images of birds.


RIDEM has detailed pdfs on Butterflies of Rhode Island and the Wild Bees of Rhode Island. Includes information about the value of specific native plant species for them.

Also check out the RI Pollinator Atlas project.  Learn how you can help with this effort to create this Atlas.

Site Designs

Native . Booklet from URI Outreach Center.  For professional landscapers and home gardeners.  Includes how to analyze a site and a number of model planting designs coded for specific plants and their value for ecological services including attraction for birds and pollinators.


Native Plants for the Small Yard, a downloadable short book from LeHigh Gap Nature Center by Kate Brandes.  Numerous suggestions and with easy to use design templates for small areas. e.g. corner garden, container garden, mailbox.  Most of the specific plant suggestions are ones native to RI and NE.

Learn from the Experts

As part of their mission to make resources on native plants and ecological landscaping available to as large an audience as possible, every year since 2015 Grow Native Massachusetts has professionally recorded numerous speakers from their Evenings with Experts lectures. All of the videos can be viewed on their website, free of charge.  Truly an excellent resource.