Native Plants
In response to underlying geology and hydrology, native plant communities emerge. Our native plants provide beauty, biodiversity, storm-water control, cleaner and cooler air, and habitat and food for local wildlife.
The majority of natural lands in Arlington occur as mature hardwood forests. Trees in these forests – and throughout the rest of the county – are perhaps our most valued natural resource. Arlington County is striving to increase our tree canopy on private property and to maintain it in our parks. Native wildflowers, grasses, shrubs and ferns are also important components of our plant communities.
Historically, an impressive 28% of the species in Virginia (40,767 sq miles) were found within the boundaries of Arlington County (26 sq miles). While an estimated 200 extirpated species are no longer present, over 600 native plant species are still found here today. Of those 600 species, a third are present at a single location or in a few small colonies, including fourteen state rare species. Many of these rarer plants are found in Natural Resource Conservation Areas, and all are mapped and protected by buffer zones.
Arlington’s Nature Centers, the Master Gardeners, Plant NoVa Natives, and the Virginia Native Plant Society are great resources for learning more.
Over 6000 plants are grown each year from locally collected seed.
Learn more.
See what plants call Arlington home.
Learn more.
Native plants deserve a place in our gardens for many reasons.
Consider planting native plants on your own property as part of a Conservation Landscape.
Learn more.
Native Plant of the Month
Virginia Spring Beauties
Claytonia virginica
The appropriately named Virginia Spring Beauties (Claytonia virginica) are indeed beautiful, if small, spring ephemerals: growing leaves, blooming, and producing seeds before the trees fully leaf out and then disappearing until the next spring. Their scientific name was assigned by Linnaeus himself in honor of John Clayton, one of Virginia's earliest naturalists. They can be quite abundant, blanketing open woodlands so thickly they sometimes look like snow. Carolina Spring Beauty (Claytonia caroliniana) is another species that grows in the mountains West of our region. Read more.