Illinois Native Plant Guide

Information Sources

Information was obtained from published scientific literature sources where available, though the literature search should not be considered exhaustive. Locally-based restoration practitioners were interviewed to take advantage of the most current but as yet unpublished information on restoration and establishment techniques. In some instances this local experience conflicted with literature information. In many cases this was due to the geographic location of the research reported in the literature. As an illustration, Marburger (1993) provides an example of a species known to have different germination requirements in different parts of the United States. Differing climate, soil chemistry, geology, and genotype may influence the germination and establishment requirements of species in different locations. Therefore, local knowledge was included here preferentially over literature references that may be from other parts of the country. Thus, it should be emphasized that this Guide contains information on growing these species in the northeastern Illinois region, and this information should not be extrapolated to other geographic locations without adequate consideration of these factors. Of course, some species have widespread geographic distribution. In these cases, the application and propagation information would be applicable in a larger geographic area. Individuals or agencies knowledgable in this field should be consulted to determine if the information provided for each species is applicable in areas outside of northeastern Illinois.

Both the scientific name and common name are included for each plant species. The primary nomenclature (plant names) used in this guide follows Kartesz (1994), which has been largely adopted as a national standard and is used by many federal agencies. This is consistent with the nomenclature used in the February 1997 Revision of the National List of Plant Species that Occur in Wetlands (Reed 1997). Kartesz (1994) replaces the National List of Scientific Plant Names (SCS 1982). The Natural Resources Conservation Service maintains the 1994 Synonymized Checklist as the PLANTS database. Where this nomenclature differs from that in the most widely used local flora, Plants of the Chicago Region, 4th edition (Swink and Wilhelm 1994), the name used in Swink and Wilhelm is listed below the scientific name in parentheses. Please understand, however, that more than one species of plant can be referred to with the same common name. The locally used common name is included in smaller type below the predominant common name.

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