How to Use Calflora's Planting Guide to Find Native Plants for Your Garden
Calflora's Planting Guide lets you find native California wild plants suited to your yard by locating your area on a map and filtering for conditions like low water, shade, or riparian (streamside) habitat. It is a good fit if you garden in California and want species native to the state; it is not a general plant-care tool, and it does not replace checking your specific site's soil, sun, and spacing needs.
What the Planting Guide does
Calflora is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Berkeley, CA, and its database holds over 3.1 million plant observations covering more than 8,000 plants. The Planting Guide draws on that database to answer a practical question: which native wild plants will grow where you live?
Rather than browsing all 8,000+ plants, you narrow the list by location and by the growing conditions you actually have.
Step-by-step: finding plants for your garden
- Find your location on the map. The guide starts with a map. Locate your garden's spot on it — this is what ties the results to your area's native flora.
- Set your plant preferences. Check the options that match your yard, such as:
- Low water plants
- Plants that grow in shade
- Riparian plants
- Click "Search." Calflora returns all the plants that fit your location and the criteria you selected.
- Explore each plant's details. From the results, open individual plants to see further information before deciding what to plant.
The expected result is a filtered list of native species matched to your location and conditions, not a generic catalog.
Choosing your filters
| Filter | Use it when |
|---|---|
| Low water | You want to reduce irrigation or have a dry site |
| Shade | Your planting area gets limited direct sun |
| Riparian | Your site is near water or stays moist |
You can combine filters, but each one narrows the list — start with the conditions that matter most in your yard and add others only if the results are still too broad.
Related tools worth knowing
- What Grows Here? — answers what plants grow in a given place, such as a state park or a spot you noticed on a hike. Useful for identifying plants you've seen rather than planning a garden.
- Great Places to view native plants — Calflora includes detailed information on over 150 (and growing) places to see native plants, helpful if you want to observe species in the wild before planting them.
Common sticking points
- The map is the starting point. If you skip locating your area, the filters alone won't tailor results to your region.
- Filters describe habitat, not care instructions. A plant matching "low water" still needs the right soil and spacing; use the plant detail pages to check further.
- Native to California ≠ native to your exact spot. The guide matches by location, but conditions within a yard (slope, soil, reflected heat) can vary.
If you find the tool useful, note that Calflora relies on individual donations to fund its staff, projects, and programs, and contributions are tax-deductible.