Test Your Search Skills with The Plant Gallery Database

Callicarpa americana and Symphyotrichum pilosum. Photo by Bettina Darveaux

By Bettina Darveaux reporting for Native Plant News

The Plant Gallery Database is a fabulous native plant educational tool developed and managed by our Society members. We want to ensure you all are taking advantage of this Society tool by learning about its capabilities for helping to obtain the plant information you are searching for.

Where to find it: In the middle of the home page of our Society website click on “Search native plant & tree gallery.”

This will bring you to my favorite page, the All Fields Plant Details Search. It is here you can select your combinations of search criteria among several attributes to help you identify a plant or groups of plants, specify cultural requirements, native status, growing region, etc. And don’t forget that in your search results output, you can either click on the thumbnail image or on the scientific name, which will open to a new page with more information and photos of the species.

It really is best for you to experience this search feature yourselves as opposed to me telling you about it. With that said, I have put together a little 10-question quiz so you can learn-by-doing.

You may email your answers to me at bettina@ncwildflower.org and I will let you know how you did!

1. You find a plant that you think is a Monarda but not sure which species. You do a search for the genus Monarda and find how many species in our database?

2. You have a Northern Witch-hazel growing in your yard that you absolutely love. As it is in the Hamamelidaceae (Witch-hazel Family), you would like to find other NC native plants in that same botanical family to add to your garden. What is the other genus in our database that is in Hamamelidaceae?

3. I would like to find some NC native wildflowers with purple or violet flowers that are suitable to grow in dry shade. Name the list of species in our database that match this criteria..

4. I am looking for a NC native shrub for the Piedmont that grows from 3-6 ft tall and blooms in August. How many species in our database meet these criteria?

5. What color are the winter rosettes (leaves) of Symphyotrichum patens?

6. How many species in our database have a whorled leaf arrangement and are from 6-12 ft tall?

7. Which evergreen fern/clubmoss/allies grows in the mountains of NC but not elsewhere in the state?

8. You wish to attract pollinators to your Coastal Plain garden and you know milkweeds (Asclepias) are great native plants for this. Your garden is in part shade and can be pretty wet at times. How many milkweed species in our database can you consider planting in your garden?

9. Which botanical plant family has the most species in our database with the characteristic of compound leaves? Helpful Hint: Click on the “Plant Family”column heading of your search results output to sort in alphabetical order.

10. How many evergreen ferns do we have in the database?

Bonus Question: Which annual invasive plant has yellow flowers?

I hope you had some fun with this quiz and learned a bit about how to best utilize the Plant Gallery Database for your native plant inquiries.


Bettina is a retired plant biologist (MS in Environment and Forest Biology from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry) with a lifelong curiosity and passion for native plants and conservation.  A naturalist at heart, she enjoys “botanizing,” gardening, hiking, kayaking, bird watching, nature photography, camping, and just about any recreation that brings her outside, especially to the mountains of NC. She currently serves on the NCNPS Executive Committee as well as several other capacities within the Society including managing the Plant Gallery Database.

Native Plant News – Fall 2024