Resources

Other wildflower sites

Many wildflowers and grasses that grow in Minnesota are common in other parts of North America, too. Sites with photos and/or information that may be helpful are:

• Robert W. Freckmann Herbarium, University of Wisconsin
• University of Michigan Herbarium
• Illinois Wildflowers, and their excellent glossary of botanical terms
• Connecticut Botanical Society
• Missouri Wildflowers
• Kansas Wildflowers
• Saskatchewan Native Plants and Colin's Virtual Herbarium
• USDA Plants Database (not exactly up to date but I'm told they're working on it)
• Flora of North America at eFloras.org: no pictures except for a few botanical drawings, but packed with detailed descriptive information on many plants, if you can interpret the botanical terms
• Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains: also few images but some good descriptive information

Other plant reference sites

• Dictionary of Common Names of Great Plains Plants: What one site calls Field Sagewort, another calls Tall Wormwood. This site can help clear the confusion on common names if you have a plant's scientific name. Regrettably, the University of Nebraska took this down, but most pages are still available on the Wayback Machine.
• Plants for a Future: information on edible plants and medicinal uses, among other things.
• The historic Junior F. Hayden Botanical Photograph Collection at the University of Minnesota archives.

Gardening and landscaping with native plants

• Recommended reading: Bringing Nature Home by Douglas Tallamy, on planting natives to sustain wildlife in your own yard.
• The DNR has extensive lists of native plant suppliers and landscapers in Minnesota and surrounding states.
• Restoring the Landscape With Native Plants is an excellent site about a home restoration project in suburban central Minnesota.
• Wild Ones promotes landscaping with native plants around homes and businesses and has 7 chapters in Minnesota.
• Blue Thumb helps landowners with shoreline plantings and rain gardens using native plants.
• The North American Native Plant Society web site includes information on gardening with natives as well as resources
• The American Society of Landscape Architects has a program to help build communities with native plants and wildlife habitat.

Other Minnesota links of interest

• Minnesota Native Plant Society
• Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
• The Herbarium at The Bell Museum of Natural History
• Ramsey County Cooperative Weed Management Area
• Minnesota Master Naturalist Program
• Minnesota Mycological Society