Native plants · Puerto Rico

Native plants of Arecibo Municipio

20 plant species are recorded as native to Puerto Rico in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Arecibo Municipio by USDA PLANTS. 11 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Arecibo Municipio, Puerto Rico

PLANTS records only 11 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Puerto Rico list is a useful second check.

Native species: 20 Typical Puerto Rico county: 6 (median of 74 counties)
Garden-ready natives: 11 Typical Puerto Rico county: 3
Share by type (all 20 native species): Percent of the 20 native species in each growth type

Tree 10% (2)
Wildflower (forb) 35% (7)
Grass or grass-like 50% (10)
Vine 5% (1)

Grasses and grass-like plants make up the largest share of the native list (50%), followed by wildflowers (35%).

Recorded native ranges can include long-established populations that spread from gardens; check your state’s native plant society list for local guidance. How native status is decided.

ZIP codes mainly in this county fall in USDA hardiness zones 12b to 13a (2023 map).

The native plant list

Garden-ready natives 11

Native species with PLANTS growing records (height, light, moisture, minimum temperature). “—” means PLANTS has no value.

Garden-ready native plants of Arecibo Municipio, Puerto Rico
Plant	Type	Height	Light	Water use	Hardy to
beaked spikerush Eleocharis rostellata	Grass or grass-like	3 ft	Sun	High	Zone 4b
fragrant flatsedge Cyperus odoratus	Grass or grass-like	2 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 11b
longleaf pondweed Potamogeton nodosus	Wildflower (forb)	—	Sun	High	Zone 3b
manyspike flatsedge Cyperus polystachyos	Grass or grass-like	1.6 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 12a
pinguin Bromelia pinguin	Wildflower (forb)	4 ft	Shade-tolerant	Low	Zone 10a
Puerto Rico royal palm Roystonea borinquena	Tree	50 ft	Shade-tolerant	—	Zone 11a
Sierran palm Prestoea acuminata	Tree	70 ft	—	—	Zone 11a
softstem bulrush Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani	Grass or grass-like	9 ft	Sun	High	Zone 3b
Spanish moss Tillandsia usneoides	Vine	—	Shade-tolerant	Medium	Zone 9b
swamp sawgrass Cladium mariscus	Grass or grass-like	8.2 ft	Sun	Medium	Zone 8b
widgeongrass Ruppia maritima	Wildflower (forb)	2 in	Sun	High	Zone 7a

Other native species recorded here 9

PLANTS has no growing records for these, so light, moisture, height and zone filters cannot include them. Many are wild species seldom sold by nurseries.

bulltongue arrowhead Sagittaria lancifolia
Canada spikesedge Eleocharis geniculata
chairmaker's bulrush Schoenoplectus americanus
shortleaf spikesedge Kyllinga brevifolia
southern cattail Typha domingensis
spiny naiad Najas marina
tropical flatsedge Cyperus surinamensis
water lettuce Pistia stratiotes
yellow spikerush Eleocharis flavescens

Compared with Puerto Rico

The typical county is the median of the 74 Puerto Rico counties with PLANTS county records; the statewide figure counts every species native anywhere in the state. More species is not better or worse: counties differ in size, habitat and how thoroughly they have been surveyed.

Native species counts, Arecibo Municipio and Puerto Rico
Measure	Arecibo Municipio	Typical county	Statewide
Native species	20	6	253
Garden-ready natives	11	3	141
Tree	2	—	76
Shrub	0	—	5
Wildflower (forb)	7	—	88
Grass or grass-like	10	—	69
Vine	1	—	9
Fern	0	—	6

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Arecibo Municipio.

Barceloneta Municipio, PR 1 garden-ready
Florida Municipio, PR 1 garden-ready
Hatillo Municipio, PR 1 garden-ready

Source & data date

Source: USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: county distribution records, native status and plant characteristics. CC0 (public domain dedication, per the data.gov catalog record).; Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP): native or introduced status by state. CC BY 3.0.; USGS US-RIIS (ver. 2.0): species listed as introduced are excluded. CC0.
Citation: USDA, NRCS. 2026. The PLANTS Database (https://plants.usda.gov, 11/04/2026). National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC USA.; Govaerts R. (ed.) (2026). WCVP: World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Data file dated 2026-06-04, http://sftp.kew.org/pub/data-repositories/WCVP/ (retrieved 2026-11-04). Paper: Govaerts R. et al. (2021) The World Checklist of Vascular Plants, a continuously updated resource for exploring global plant diversity. Scientific Data 8, 215.
Data date: Retrieved from PLANTS on November 4, 2026; WCVP data file dated June 4, 2026.
Zones: USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map (2023) ZIP table: PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu, accessed November 3, 2026. Plant zones on this site are our estimate, not the official map.
Scope: Arecibo Municipio (county FIPS 72013), Puerto Rico. 20 native species from PLANTS county distribution records; garden-ready = species with a PLANTS characteristics record.
Method: A species is listed when it is recorded as native to the state in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in the county by USDA PLANTS. Species PLANTS labels both native and introduced are listed separately. Full method · All sources

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