Wildflower.org Native Plant Database Scraper

Scrapes the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center NPIN (Native Plant Information Network) — the canonical US native-plant database with ~9,000 species. Returns scientific name, common names, USDA symbol, growing conditions, bloom data, wildlife value, pollinator and butterfly larval-host data, and commercial availability.

What does it scrape?

• Source: wildflower.org/plants — the authoritative North American native plant reference maintained by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at UT Austin
• Coverage: ~9,000 native plant species (all plant families)
• Data per plant: ~30 fields covering taxonomy, growing conditions, ecology, and horticultural use

Use Cases

• Building native plant recommendation tools and apps
• Ecological research and biodiversity analysis
• Horticultural and landscaping databases
• Pollinator habitat and butterfly larval host mapping
• Retail nursery and seed catalog enrichment

Output Fields

Field	Description
id_plant	NPIN plant symbol (USDA-aligned primary key, e.g. HEAN3)
scientific_name	Scientific name (genus + species)
common_names	Common names (comma-separated)
family	Plant family (e.g. Asteraceae)
genus	Genus
species	Species epithet
synonyms	Taxonomic synonyms (comma-separated)
usda_symbol	USDA PLANTS cross-walk symbol
usda_native_status	USDA native status codes by region (comma-separated)
plant_type	Plant habit/type (tree, shrub, forb-herb, grass, vine, cactus)
duration	Life duration — annual, biennial, perennial (comma-separated)
native_distribution	US states and Canadian provinces where native (comma-separated abbreviations)
native_habitat	Natural habitat description
bloom_color	Flower bloom color(s) (comma-separated)
bloom_time	Bloom months (comma-separated, e.g. Jun, Jul, Aug)
height	Plant height range
leaf_description	Leaf description
flower_description	Flower description
fruit_description	Fruit/seed description
sun_exposure	Sun requirement (comma-separated — sun, part shade, shade)
soil_moisture	Soil moisture preference (comma-separated — dry, moist, wet)
soil_description	Soil type and conditions description
cold_tolerant	Cold-tolerant flag (Yes/No)
heat_tolerant	Heat-tolerant flag (Yes/No)
drought_tolerant	Drought-tolerant flag (Yes/No)
water_use	Water use category (low, medium, high)
maintenance	Maintenance level
use_ornamental	Ornamental use notes
use_wildlife	Wildlife value notes (birds, mammals, insects supported)
use_pollinators	Pollinator value (comma-separated — bees, butterflies, hummingbirds)
butterfly_larval_host_for	Lepidoptera species for which this plant is a larval host (comma-separated)
conspicuous_flowers	Conspicuous flowers flag (Yes/No)
deer_resistant	Deer resistance rating
propagation	Propagation instructions
seed_collection	Seed collection notes
commercially_available	Commercially available flag (Yes/No)
image_urls	Image URLs from the NPIN gallery (comma-separated)
wildflower_url	Canonical NPIN detail page URL

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
maxItems	integer	Maximum number of plant records to return. Set to 0 for all ~9,000 plants. Default: 10.
families	array	Limit scraping to specific plant families (e.g. ["Asteraceae", "Fabaceae"]). Leave empty to scrape all families.

Example Output

{
  "id_plant": "HEAN3",
  "scientific_name": "Helianthus annuus",
  "common_names": "common sunflower",
  "family": "Asteraceae",
  "genus": "Helianthus",
  "species": "annuus",
  "usda_symbol": "HEAN3",
  "plant_type": "forb/herb",
  "duration": "annual",
  "bloom_color": "yellow",
  "bloom_time": "Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep",
  "native_distribution": "AZ, CA, CO, ID, KS, MN, MT, NE, NM, ND, OK, OR, SD, TX, UT, WA, WY",
  "sun_exposure": "sun",
  "soil_moisture": "dry, moist",
  "drought_tolerant": "Yes",
  "commercially_available": "Yes",
  "use_pollinators": "bees, butterflies",
  "wildflower_url": "https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=HEAN3"
}

Notes

• The scraper discovers all plant families automatically from the NPIN search index, then collects plant IDs from each family listing, and finally fetches each plant's detail page.
• Use the families input to limit coverage to specific botanical families (faster runs for targeted research).
• maxItems: 0 returns all available plants — expect a full run to take several hours for the complete ~9,000 plant dataset.
• Reaches the site reliably on every run.