Conserving the Heritage of Native Plants

NRCS Plant Materials Program

The NRCS Plant Materials Program selects conservation plants and develops innovative planting technology to solve the nation’s critical resource concerns. The program includes a network of 26 Plant Materials Centers (PMCs) and associated Plant Material Specialists serving all 50 states and territories. The program maintains and distributes foundation seed for the commercial production of certified seed, which is commonly used in conservation plantings on private and public lands. Over the past 70 years, the program has cooperatively selected over 500 conservation plants for use in conservation applications and release to the seed industry.

Shown on the map are the locations of the Plant Materials Centers and the geographic distribution of the native plants featured here.

Text description of distribution area. Includes a larger image of the map.

Native Plants

Traditional use of native plants is important to tribal people, especially plants for rituals and customs. Native plants were essential in the everyday life of early indigenous people and were used for food, medicine, religion, tools, manufacturing, and commercial trade. Since the 1950s, Plant Materials Centers in the Northern Great Plains and Rocky Mountains have evaluated the performance of hundreds of plant species that played an important role in the historic culture of the American Indian.

Plant Materials and Tribal Assistance

The program cooperates with tribal partners to assist in the identification, propagation, and establishment of culturally significant plants. Other means of assistance is provided through the development of propagation protocols, informational brochures and planting guides, and PMC tours to transfer technology on the conservation of cultural plants. The program makes recommendations to numerous tribal groups on activities such as greenhouse construction, roadside revegetation, streambank stabilization, field and hothouse plant establishment, pasture and crop production systems, erosion control methods, and noxious weed control.

Featured Plants

Aberdeen, Idaho PMC

• Fourwing Saltbush Atriplex canescens
• Hardstem Bulrush Scirpus acutus
• Lewis Flax Linum lewisii
• Winterfat Krascheninnikovia lanata

Bismarck, North Dakota PMC

• Chokecherry Prunus virginiana
• Purple Coneflower Echinacea angustifolia
• Silver Buffaloberry Shepherdia argentea
• White Sage Artemisia ludoviciana

Bridger, Montana PMC

• Indian Ricegrass Achnatherum hymenoides
• Prairie Coneflower Ratibida columnifera
• Sweetgrass Hierochloe odorata
• Western Yarrow Achillea millefolium var. occidentalis
• White Praire Clover Dalea candida

Manhattan, Kansas PMC

• Maximilian Sunflower Helianthus maximiliani
• Partridge Pea Chamaecrista fasciculata
• Prairie Blazing Star Liatris pycnostachya
• Purple Prairie Clover Dalea purpurea
• Yellow Coneflower Ratibida pinnata

Upper Colorado Environmental Plant Center (Meeker, Colorado)

• Big Sagebrush Artemisia tridentata
• Mountain Mahogany Cercocarpus montanus
• Pinyon Pine Pinus edulis
• Saskatoon Serviceberry Amelanchier alnifolia

If you encounter any problems with the file provided on this page, please contact Technical Resources at 406-587-6822.

This information is available as a poster paper in Adobe Reader format. These are very large files. For best results, copy documents to your computer before opening. For example, on a Windows platform, right click on the link, select "Save Target As...", then open the copy on your local computer.

Conserving the Heritage of Native Plants (PDF; 2.4 MB) Reduced-size, 23-inch by 45-inch document.
Conserving the Heritage of Native Plants (PDF; 38.3 MB) Full-size, 4-foot by 8-foot display.

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Last Modified: 08/11/2005