MARSB’s Native Species Lists for the Mid-Atlantic
Species lists for Maryland and Virginia are now available on the List Selection tool! Species lists are now available in spreadsheet (XLS) format!
RECENT UPDATES:
Access MARSB’s native species lists using the interactive map and species list selection tool.
“… for people to do their own ‘rewilding’ the MARSB tool is essential in getting the right habitat for that place established. It's these types of tools that are making ecological restoration more sustainable and precise.”
— Bram Gunther, Plan It Wild
This tool is designed for desktop use. Mobile viewing is not supported. If you have challenges accessing the features on our interactive tool, please try another web browser or try clearing your cache!
Need more help delving into this tool and/or species lists? Please contact info@marsb.org, and we will happily assist you!
About Our Lists
MARSB is developing ecoregionally based native species lists for each state in the mid-Atlantic region. Our lists are thoroughly researched resources, housed in an interactive tool that allows you to easily take geographic and ecological factors into account when making important decisions for your project or your market. Browse our native species lists, categorized by state, ecoregion, and habitat.
States: Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia are currently the only states available. More states will be added soon.
Ecoregions: Species lists are grouped by Level III ecoregions, derived from Omernik (1987).
Habitats: Within an ecoregion, lists are grouped among several broadly-defined habitat types and moisture gradients. The exceptions are the woodland and woodland-edge habitats, which are currently available only at the state level.
Each list is further divided into Broad and Basic subsets.
The Broad subset is a rich, biodiverse mix of species intended to represent a wish-list of sorts for that particular habitat type. It is encompassing of a number of different families and phenologies, and would comprise a fairly complete mix for an herbaceous restoration planting.
The Basic subset includes what we consider the most essential elements of the Broad subset. It will form the structural basis of an herbaceous restoration planting upon which additional complementary species can later be added, while still providing ecological function. Basic subsets are composed of more than just statewide priority species, acknowledging that ecoregional variations in species composition are widespread.
State Priority Lists: The State Priority Lists are a collection of taxa selected from among the ecoregional lists primarily for their extensive distribution within state boundaries. MARSB recommends these taxa particularly for wide-scale production based on distributional data and additional qualitative factors. Taxa included in a respective state list meet the following criteria:
Widely distributed (documented in a majority of counties in each ecoregion)
Easily producible in a nursery setting
Produces abundant seed that can be banked for multiple years (orthodox)
Can be successful as restoration outplantings
Serve key ecological functions
List Development
When undertaking this project, the question MARSB posed was this: Of the thousands of plants native to the Mid-Atlantic, which should be recommended to growers and end-users in order to focus demand and simplify the complex challenges facing the native plant material supply chain?
In order to filter the totality of Mid-Atlantic plant taxa into components which will fit into a commercial market, MARSB considered several factors for each species’ inclusion:
Must be orthodox (produce seed which can be dried for storage)
Must produce non-trivial seed quantities
Must produce seed with relatively high germination rates, that is reasonably easy to harvest and clean
Must be able to thrive in nursery cultivation, or if cultivation traits are unknown, be related to known plants
Must not be so common in the landscape as to make commercial production redundant or unnecessary
Must be documented in a majority of counties in a given ecoregion
Additional consideration given to:
Early successional species
Highly commercially marketable species
Species known to be successful in habitat restoration
Limitations
The lists are composed solely of terrestrial herbaceous plants. They do not yet include trees, shrubs, ferns, emergents, aquatics, or bryophytes.
MARSB lists are a work in progress. We will make adjustments as needed and in time add new plant group and habitat components.
Note: Many of the lists include rare, threatened, or endangered species which meet the list criteria. We have clearly marked these species as such. Collection, growth, or planting of these species should be conducted under the context of that species recovery plan and with the permission or under the auspices of the relevant state natural heritage program or other relevant regulatory bodies.