DURANGO
PLANTS
The Study, Preservation, and Celebration of Native Plants
IDENTIFY A PLANT
LIST ALL PLANTS
This website is a celebration and discussion of native plants focused on the area around Durango, Colorado in the Southwest corner of the state. Our goal is to spread awareness about the value of using native plants in water wise landscaping, as well as celebrate the beauty of these often unnoticed plants. Planting with Native Plants can give you a beautiful landscape which requires less water, is well adapted to the local climate, and will support wildlife naturally. Please check out our online plant guide for a rudimentary identification source for flora of the region. We also cover introduced but naturalized plants and noxious weeds. For fine art prints of native plants, please visit our prints page.
FEATURED PLANT FOR August
A couple of species of Claytonia exist around Durango, but this is the one you'll find in the highest reaches of the alpine, often growing in talus fields.
READ MOREOur guide may also include plants from nearby areas such as Northern New Mexico, Southeast Utah & the rest of Colorado. Our interest in Colorado Native Plants stems from a lifetime of outdoor pursuits and work in the nursery business. While we do our best to provide accurate scientific descriptions of plants, we have collected many images while not possessing a plant key. In some cases where we do not have sufficient data to identify a species we'll list with the Genus and "spp" meaning "several species." We welcome your help, please use the contact form for any corrections, comments, or just to say hi!
Scientific Name vs Common Name
While we do include common names where applicable, we list plants first by their scientific names which are made up of genus, species, and subspecies. Common names differ from area to area, and the same common name is often used for several genera across different regions. Also, in recent years DNA data has been used to regroup species and even locate them into different genera. We value accuracy, but only use the "new" name when it has been universally accepted. We usually use the USDA Plants as the arbiter of acceptance for new names. Our text search for native plants will also search known synonyms and all the common names we can find.
