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Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

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Wednesday - July 07, 2010

From: Sedona, AZ
Region: Southwest
Topic: Plant Identification, Herbs/Forbs
Title: Plants indigenous to Sedona, AZ
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

I live in Sedona AZ and I want to plant indigenous plants in my garden. Is there a list of AZ native plants shrubs and trees that are indigenous to Sedona? If there is no list that is specific for Sedona- is there a list of AZ native plants shrubs and trees that I could adapt?

ANSWER:

There are several ways to do this.  I'll start with the simplest way and then tell you a couple of other ways.  Go first to our Arizona Recommended page where you will find a list of more than 220 commercially available native plants suitable for landscaping in Arizona.  Many, but not all, of them will be native to Yavapai or Coconino County—I'm not sure which county you live in since Sedona apparently sits on the county line of the two.  You can scroll through the entire list looking for plants you like or you can use the NARROW YOUR SEARCH option in the sidebar to make selections on different characteristics.  For instance, if you wanted a shrub that would grow in partial shade, you would select 'Shrub' under GENERAL APPEARANCE and 'Part Shade...' under LIGHT REQUIREMENT.  This will give you a list of 24 shrubs.  If you like Fallugia paradoxa (Apache plume), click on its name to see its page.  To determine if it is native to your county, you would scroll down its page until you find ADDITIONAL RESOURCES near the bottom of the page and click on its name by USDA.  This will take you to the USDA Plants Database page for Apache plume where you will find a map of North America.  Click on Arizona on the map and you will see all the counties in Arizona where Fallugia paradoxa (Apache plume) has been reported.  As it turns out, it occurs in both Yavapai and Coconino counties.

Alternatively, you can search for ALL the plants in our Native Plant Database that are native Arizona by doing a COMBINATION SEARCH.  Select 'Arizona' from the Select State or Province option to get all the Arizona natives on our Native Plant Database (almost 2000).  You can select various characteristics (e.g., 'Herb' from Habit (general appearance) and/or 'Dry...' from Soil moisture) when you do your COMBINATION SEARCH.  To determine if the plant grows in your county, open its page and scroll down to the ADDITIONAL RESOURCES section and follow the instructions given above.  You can also use the NARROW YOUR SEARCH option when you get a list of plants.

Here is yet another way to determine what native plants occur in one or both counties.  On the USDA Plants Database page in the Search column on the left, select 'Advanced Search'.  Under 1. Distribution select 'Yavapai' or 'Coconino'.  You can select both by holding down the 'Ctrl' key on a PC or the 'Apple' key on a Mac while click one county and then the next one.  Under 2. Taxonomy you can choose what you want displayed.  The scientific name will display if you choose nothing, but you might also want to display the 'National common name' and perhaps the 'Family'.  Under 3. Ecology you will want to choose 'North America Native' to display.  You can choose as many other things as you like, but this will give you a list of all native plants reported in the county or counties you have chosen.  Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the 'Display Results' button. 

You can also search the University of Arizona Herbarium specimen collection for plants in your county by typing 'Arizona' in the State/Province slot and your county in the Lower political slot.

My suggestion is to try the first option.  If that doesn't get you what you want, then you can try the second one.  The third and fourth ones will probably give you more than you want to see! 

 

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