Native Species Selection
Proceed with confidence.
Leverage the power of big data and AI to choose the best native species for your landscape restoration project.
Why is native plant species selection important?
Choosing the right plant species is a critical challenge in the landscape restoration industry. Incorrect species selection can lead to project failures costing millions of dollars, especially on large-scale efforts. Beyond financial losses, the missed opportunity to restore vital ecosystems and achieve ecological goals is immeasurable.
Unlike hardy horticultural species bred to thrive in various environments, native plants are uniquely adapted to specific conditions. When placed in unsuitable locations, they often fail quickly, jeopardizing the success of restoration projects. We’ve seen costly meadow initiatives falter, riparian buffer projects requiring multiple replantings, and reforestation efforts plagued by large-scale die-offs. Even well-intentioned landscapers struggle to meet their goals, often leaving customers disappointed.
Failed projects not only waste resources but also tarnish the reputation of design and architecture firms. Lawsuits over unmet expectations have become all too common. Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) installations and rain gardens frequently devolve into invasive weed zones, undermining their purpose.
Despite these challenges, the need to restore ecosystems and rewild our communities is more urgent than ever. That’s where ArcheWild’s Native Species Selection service comes in.
Our ecologist-assisted, tool-based service has consistently delivered proven results across diverse ecoregions and project scales in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. With a deep understanding of native plant requirements and environmental contexts, we help ensure your projects achieve authentic, lasting success.
If you’re ready to elevate your restoration efforts and make a lasting impact, let ArcheWild guide your path to sustainable and resilient landscapes.
How does Native Species Selection work?
Choosing the right plant species for restoration projects can be challenging, but we’ve made the process straightforward. Behind the simplicity is five years of dedicated work refining the algorithms that power our AI-assisted models.
These models analyze the relationships between species, locations, and environmental conditions, all while considering the unique characteristics of the ecoregion. For example, if your project is in ecoregion 84c, on a sunny sand dune, our system might recommend species like sea rocket, bayberry, or beach heather. These suggestions are based on real-world observations of similar species thriving under comparable conditions in other locations.
By combining advanced technology with ecological expertise, we provide reliable, context-specific plant recommendations to help your projects succeed. Whether you’re working on a small-scale garden or a large restoration site, our tools ensure you start with the right species for the right place.
- AI-assisted pattern recognition
- Site attribute matching
- Associated species weighting
Which Site Attributes are being evaluated?
The factors that determine whether a species can thrive in a specific location aren’t a mystery. Soil type, sunlight exposure, water availability, herbivory, and other measurable site attributes interact in predictable ways. By understanding these relationships, we can model how a site’s conditions influence the success of native plant species.
Our approach essentially replicates how an experienced ecologist thinks. For instance, if someone observes a site in New York with a high proportion of poverty oatgrass, prairie dropseed, and balsam ragwort, an ecologist can infer key details about the site—such as soil conditions, water availability, and even other species likely to be present—without ever visiting it.
This is the foundation of our model. It’s a system that uses real-world data and ecological expertise to deliver insights that help you select the right species for any site, ensuring your restoration projects are set up for success.
Where Does the Data come from?
Effective native species selection begins with high-quality field data. For over 15 years, ArcheWild and its partners have been systematically collecting and curating species-location data to ensure accuracy and relevance.
Each entry in our SeedSource database is meticulously verified by professional botanists, ensuring the highest level of reliability. This dataset is entirely proprietary — no public or third-party website data is used — providing a foundation of pure, professionally validated information for species selection and ecological modeling.
- 5,000+ individual survey locations
- 50,000+ species records
- Hundreds of thousands of GPS-referenced data points
What are the different levels of service?
If you are a business partner or frequent customer, a simple phone call to one of our ecologists or nursery staff members can get you instant feedback and recommendations.
If you are a project manager that inherited a planting plan, you can submit it to ArcheWild for a formal design review by one of our ecologists. With some information about the site and project goals, we can help spot inconsistencies and potential problems.
If you work for a conservation organization and need to understand the plant communities or set of species that a particular small-scale site can support, you can submit a request for a remote analysis. You will need to complete a site evaluation form for the site being analyzed that could require you to visit the site.
If you are a land manager, large property owner, landscape architect, or civil engineer, we offer our ecologist-assisted native species selection service. This involves sending an ArcheWild ecologist to your site to perform a complete survey of the sites' ecological zones and how they fit into the larger landscape, and then running models in our SeedSource software to generate species recommendations for each zone. Soil samples are often required.
There is no online tool available for public use, but our business partners can request access.
Build authenticity into your project
Take the risk out of your upcoming project by getting reliable plant recommendations.
Phone Inquiries
Give us a call about your situation and one of our ecologists or nursery staff will be more than happy to help.
- Species recommendations
- Species alternatives
Email Support
Email us your planting plan for a design review to spot inconsistencies and incompatible species.
- Document review
- Recommended adjustments
Remote Analysis
Visit your site and complete the supplied form or use the SeedSource software to describe your site for analysis.
- Recommended species list
- Discussion with an ecologist
