A new online tool makes it easier to find native plants for specific areas and projects.

The Otago Native Planting Guide is an interactive map which uses ecosystem information to provide a list of native species best suited to identified areas.

It was developed by the Otago Regional Council (ORC) to help improve the region’s environment.

Plants are the “building blocks” to restoring a healthy ecosystem, ORC environmental implementation manager Libby Caldwell said. 

“Plants which naturally occur in the area will have a higher chance of surviving as they’re adapted to growing in that local environment.”

“The native animals in those areas will also rely on specific plant species for food and habitat.”

She said native birds have disappeared in many areas.

“By planting the right species, in the right place, we hope to bring our native fauna back, as well as improving water quality and helping toward climate change responses.”

The native plants recommended in the guide are based on  an estimate of the likely indigenous ecosystem coverage across the Otago region if there had been no human influence. 

Additional lists are provided for riparian areas and Central Otago shrublands that are not matched to the potential ecosystems map. 

The Otago Native Planting Guide can be used in your backyard, commercial project or community initiative.

Users can visit the site and enter their project location, address or click on the map to receive a downloadable list of what native species should be planted at the site.

The resource is for species choices and it is not an instruction manual for revegetation projects, Libby said.

Check out the Otago Native Planting Guide here.

PHOTO: Wānaka App