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What’s New with PLANTS

By Terry M. Conway, Plant Materials Specialist
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
Salina, Kansas

The USDA’s highly touted web site, PLANTS (http://plants.usda.gov), was recently recognized as one of the top 10 of all federal government web sites. Selection criteria were based on web sites that provided customers with useful and easily accessible information, promoted new technologies, and facilitated governmental operations. During the year 2000, the web site had over 750,000 user hits.

This award winning web site contains general information on all 43,000 plant and lichen species, plus expanded information on over 2,000 conservation plants. Over the past few months PLANTS has made several improvements and additions. Some of these include:

  • An expanded database to include photos of over 2,800 plants.
  • Plant guides and fact sheets have been developed for hundreds of species.
  • An Invasive and Noxious module has been added that offers many links to information about invasive weed control and management, ecology, and identification.
  • A Culturally Significant module offers over 30 new plant guides on species used by different cultures within the U.S. and its territories.
  • The Federal Threatened and Endangered Plant Species list status, as determined by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has been completely updated and is available through the Threatened and Endangered module.
  • A tool for calculating the approximate amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium that is removed by crop harvest is now available.
  • Numerous links are provided for alternative crops that may be suitable for limited-resource farmers and small acreage landowners. Cultural requirements and market strategy information is provided.
  • The program “Vegspec” is available to assist with the selection of adapted plant species for use in various conservation practices.
  • Hundreds of other plant related web site links have been categorized for easier access.

The PLANTS web site would be a good place to start looking for answers to any plant related question that you may have.

For more information about plants in your area, please contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service or conservation district office located at your local county USDA Service Center.

For more information about NRCS programs, visit the Kansas NRCS web site at www.ks.nrcs.usda.gov.

This article is also available in Microsoft Word format.

What’s New with PLANTS (DOC; 28 KB)

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Last Modified: 09/09/2008