Publication Type: Abstract
Abstract: The Plant Materials Program of the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), through its conservation partners, selects and releases conservation plants. For over 70 years, the Plant Materials Centers (PMCs) and Plant Materials Specialists nationwide have collected, evaluated, selected and released over 600 conservation plants for protection, restoration and enhancement of natural resources (http://plant-materials.nrcs.usda.gov). Many of these conservation plants, both herbaceous and woody species, provide a source of nectar, food and cover habitat for adult and immature pollinators, and habitat for a broad array of wildlife species. Plant Materials Centers and their partners have developed technical resources to assist the public in selecting plants for pollinator habitats (http://www.plant-materials.nrcs.usda.gov/pubs/ orpmcbr7561.pdf; http://www.plant-materials.nrcs.usda.gov/pubs/idpmstn7641.pdf; ftp://ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda. gov/MT/www/technical/plants/pollinator.pdf). The National PLANTS Data Center is another useful plant resource (http://plants.usda.gov/). The PLANTS Data Center contains information on plant characteristics, classification, planting guides, images, and species distribution along with other plant related information.