Native plants · Puerto Rico
Native plants of Mayagüez Municipio
18 plant species are recorded as native to Puerto Rico in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Mayagüez Municipio by USDA PLANTS. 8 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.
County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP
Mayagüez Municipio, Puerto Rico
PLANTS records only 8 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Puerto Rico list is a useful second check.
- Native species
- 18 Typical Puerto Rico county: 6 (median of 74 counties)
- Garden-ready natives
- 8 Typical Puerto Rico county: 3
- Share by type (all 18 native species)
-
Percent of the 18 native species in each growth type
Grasses and grass-like plants make up the largest share of the native list (72%), followed by wildflowers (22%).
The native plant list
Garden-ready natives 8
Native species with PLANTS growing records (height, light, moisture, minimum temperature). “—” means PLANTS has no value.
| Plant | Type | Height | Light | Water use | Hardy to |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| fragrant flatsedge Cyperus odoratus | Grass or grass-like | 2 ft | Sun | Medium | Zone 11b |
| haspan flatsedge Cyperus haspan | Grass or grass-like | 3.2 ft | Sun | Medium | Zone 8a |
| leafy pondweed Potamogeton foliosus | Wildflower (forb) | — | Sun | High | Zone 3b |
| manyspike flatsedge Cyperus polystachyos | Grass or grass-like | 1.6 ft | Sun | Medium | Zone 12a |
| poorland flatsedge Cyperus compressus | Grass or grass-like | 1 ft | Sun | Medium | 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 |
No garden-ready natives match these filters. Try clearing one.
Other native species recorded here 10
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.
Hidden while “Garden-ready only” is on.
- blue mudplantain Heteranthera limosa
- bulltongue arrowhead Sagittaria lancifolia
- Canada spikesedge Eleocharis geniculata
- fragrant spikesedge Kyllinga odorata
- fringed nutrush Scleria ciliata
- globe beaksedge Rhynchospora recognita
- low spikesedge Kyllinga pumila
- shortleaf spikesedge Kyllinga brevifolia
- tropical flatsedge Cyperus surinamensis
- whitemouth dayflower Commelina erecta
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.
| Measure | Mayagüez Municipio | Typical county | Statewide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native species | 18 | 6 | 253 |
| Garden-ready natives | 8 | 3 | 141 |
| Tree | 0 | — | 76 |
| Shrub | 0 | — | 5 |
| Wildflower (forb) | 4 | — | 88 |
| Grass or grass-like | 13 | — | 69 |
| Vine | 1 | — | 9 |
| Fern | 0 | — | 6 |
Neighboring counties
Counties that share a ZIP code with Mayagüez Municipio.
- Añasco Municipio, PR 1 garden-ready
- San Germán Municipio, PR 4 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
- Mayagüez Municipio (county FIPS 72097), Puerto Rico. 18 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