Rare Plant Photo Collection

The Rare Plant Photo Collection contains approximately 2700 images of over 640 taxa of rare California plants. These images enable the Rare Plant Program to "illustrate" the value of protecting California's rare plants by showing the wide array of unique and beautiful plant species. Most of these images come from slides that have been graciously donated over the years by professional and amateur photographers and botanists. The Rare Plant Program gratefully accepts images from slides as well as digital photos. Refer to the list below (sorted alphabetically) for details on our holdings.

Images available and images wanted (207k PDF)

Loans/Terms of Use

All of CNPS’ photos and slides are available in JPG format. These images are available for free if used to support rare plant conservation and education. Contact the Rare Plant Program for further information, at 916/324-3816 or via e-mail at asimscnps.org.

Slides/JPEGs available: A-C, D-L, and M-Z (VERY LARGE html files)

Donations Needed!

Only about one third of the rare plant taxa currently tracked by the Rare Plant Program have images in the Rare Plant Program photo collection. If you have high quality digital photos or slides of rare plants, please consider donating them to the Rare Plant Program photo collection. Refer to the lists below (sorted alphabetically by scientific name) for specific plant photos needed. For slide donations, please read the PDF document at the top of the page titled “Images available and images wanted” for submittal information.

Practical time considerations prohibit individual notification to the photographer when the slides or photos are used. Whenever your slide or photo is used, CNPS will make every effort to require users to give photographic credits as follows: "(your name) / California Native Plant Society". Contact the Rare Plant Program for further information at 916/324-3816 or via e-mail at asimscnps.org.

Slides/Photos wanted: A-C, D-L, and M-Z (VERY LARGE html files)

CalPhotos Online Library of Plant Images 

Containing over 135,000 images of California plants contributed by more than 1,000 photographers, this library has grown up around the collection of photos taken by the late Brother Alfred Brousseau F.S.C. This resource contains images of plants, both common and rare, native and introduced. It can be reached at http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/flora/. The majority of the CNPS slide collection images are accessible via CalPhotos.

Rare Plant Photo Collection Contact

Aaron Sims, Rare Plant Botanist
2707 K Street, Suite 1, Sacramento, CA 95816
Phone: (916) 324-3816
Fax:     (916) 324-0475
E-mail: asimscnps.org