Articles
Invasive, Non-Native, or Naturalized: How We Characterize Non-Native Plants and Why It Matters In this article, the Huron River Watershed Council (HRWC) discusses the “10% rule” as it applies to non-natives and invasive and naturalized plants. And each spring as you fill in empty spaces with new plants, the HRWC encourages everyone to study what is already growing in your space, what you are planning to plant, and what their expected relationship will be between the new plants and what is already there.
Books
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Combines ecological science and Indigenous wisdom about plants.
The Gardener’s Guide to Prairie Plants by Neil Diboll and Hilary Cox. A detailed reference for prairie species, life cycles, and design.
Grow Wild! Low-Maintenance, Sure-Success, Distinctive Gardening with Native Plants by Lorraine Johnson, one of Canada’s most influential native gardening writers and a member of Wild Ones Ann Arbor Area.
Landscaping with Native Plants of Michigan by Lynn Steiner. Specific to Michigan.
The Living Landscape by Rick Darke and Doug Tallamy. Combines ecological design with native plants.
Nature’s Best Hope by Doug Tallamy. Focuses on how individuals can rebuild ecosystems through native planting.
A Northern Gardener’s Guide to Native Plants and Pollinators: Creating Habitat in the Northeast, Great Lakes, and Upper Midwest by Lorraine Johnson, one of Canada’s most influential native gardening writers and a member of Wild Ones Ann Arbor Area.
A Northern Gardener’s Guide to Native Plants and Pollinators: Creating Habitat in the Northeast, Great Lakes, and Upper Midwest by Lorraine Johnson, one of Canada’s most influential native gardening writers and a member of Wild Ones Ann Arbor Area.
The Midwestern Native Garden: Native Alternatives to Nonnative Flowers and Plants by Charlotte Adelman and Bernard L. Schwartz.
Midwestern Native Shrubs and Trees: Gardening Alternatives to Nonnative Species: An Illustrated Guide by Charlotte Adelman and Bernard L. Schwartz.
Pollinators of Native Plants by Heather Holm. Explores relationships between native plants and their pollinators, with many photos of insects and plants.
Prairie and Savannas in Michigan: Rediscovering our Natural Heritage, by Ryan P. O’Connor, Michael A. Kost, and Joshua G Cohen. An overview of native plant communities in Michigan.
Prairie Up: An Introduction to Natural Garden Design by Benjamin Vogt. A strong voice in modern prairie-inspired natural garden design and ethics.
Field Guides
A Field Guide to Wildflowers of Northeastern and North-central North America by Roger Tory Peterson and Margaret McKenny. Organized by flower color.
A Field Identification Guide to Invasive Plants in Michigan’s Natural Communities. Michigan State University/MSU Extension. A free PDF is available for download and a hard copy is available for purchase.
Field Manual of Michigan Flora by Edward G. Voss and Anton A. Reznicek.
Grasses, Sedges, Rushes: An Identification Guide by Lauren Brown and Ted Elliman.
Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. by Lawrence Newcomb. Organized by plant structure.
Plant Identification Terminology, An Illustrated Glossary, 2nd edition, by James G. Harris and Melinda Woolf Harris.
Wildflowers of the Midwest by Michael Homoya and Scott Namestnick. Organized by flower color.
Videos
Carex (Sedge) Identification with Dr. Anton Reznicek (Channel: All Things Wetland Plants) In this video, Dr. Anton Reznicek (Curator of the University of Michigan Herbarium and Research Scientist in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) provides an overview of key features for identifying Carex species in the field, using several common wetland species as examples. The video ends with a broad discussion of Carex ecology, habitat preferences, distribution, and related topics. Tony Rezicek is well-known in local botanical groups as an expert on our regional flora and an international expert on Cyperaceae (sedges), particularly emphasizing the genus Carex. He co-authored the Field Manual of Michigan Flora and is a leading authority on plants across the Great Lakes region.
How Native Cultivars Affect Pollinators. Annie S. White, PhD, lecturer, University of Vermont, Owner, NECTAR landscape design Studio, Stowe, Vermont.
Pollinator Habitat 101: An Introduction and Refresher. In fall 2022, the Ohio State University Bee Lab hosted a series of online classes for all those interested in planting some pollinator habitat. It was a great lineup of speakers and a good opportunity to learn, especially if you’re a beginner.
Video Channels
Wild Ones Ann Arbor Area YouTube channel. Featuring presentations by local native plant experts.
Wild Ones Presents page of the Wild Ones website. Wild Ones webinars showcase experts from the natural landscaping movement by producing videos throughout the year on a wide variety of topics. Available for free.
Websites and Apps
Leafsnap This free mobile app helps identify tree species from photographs of their leaves and contains beautiful high-resolution images of their flowers, fruits, petioles, seeds, and bark. The original Leafsnap currently includes trees found in the Northeastern United States and Canada, and will soon grow to cover the trees of the entire continental United States.
Midwest Invasive Plant Network Our mission is to reduce the impact of invasive plants in the Midwest. The Midwest Invasive Plant Network (MIPN) collaborates to reduce the impact of invasive plant species in the region due to the wide range of negative impacts invasives are known to have on native species, ecosystems, and human health.
University of Michigan LSA Herbarium: Michigan Flora Online The immediate goals of MICHIGAN FLORA ONLINE are to present, in a searchable and browsable form, the basic information about all vascular plants known to occur outside of cultivation in the state. This includes, unlike the published Michigan Flora, the spore bearing vascular plants (ferns, horsetails, club mosses, etc.). Information available includes maps showing the distribution of all the species in the state, keys to all the families, genera, and species, brief discussions about the species, including habitats, nativity, date of first collection of aliens, and in some cases, notes helpful to identification beyond the features noted in the keys.
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS Database The PLANTS Database provides standardized information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the United States and its territories. It includes names, plant symbols, checklists, distributional data, species abstracts, characteristics, images, crop information, automated tools, web links, and references.