Natives by ZIP

Native plants recorded in your state and county

Native plants · Puerto Rico

Native plants of San Juan Municipio

25 plant species are recorded as native to Puerto Rico in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in San Juan Municipio by USDA PLANTS. 12 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

San Juan Municipio, Puerto Rico

PLANTS records only 12 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Puerto Rico list is a useful second check.

Native species
25 Typical Puerto Rico county: 6 (median of 74 counties)
Garden-ready natives
12 Typical Puerto Rico county: 3
Share by type (all 25 native species)
Percent of the 25 native species in each growth type
Tree 8% (2)
Shrub 4% (1)
Wildflower (forb) 28% (7)
Grass or grass-like 60% (15)

Grasses and grass-like plants make up the largest share of the native list (60%), followed by wildflowers (28%).

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 13a to 13b (2023 map).

The native plant list

Cold hardiness is estimated from each plant’s PLANTS minimum temperature. How we estimate it.

Garden-ready natives 12

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

Garden-ready native plants of San Juan Municipio, Puerto Rico
PlantType HeightLight Water useHardy to
female karata Furcraea tuberosa Shrub 1 ft — — Zone 11a
fragrant flatsedge Cyperus odoratus Grass or grass-like 2 ft Sun Medium Zone 11b
Gulf Coast spikerush Eleocharis cellulosa Grass or grass-like 2.6 ft Sun High Zone 8b
haspan flatsedge Cyperus haspan Grass or grass-like 3.2 ft Sun Medium Zone 8a
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
poorland flatsedge Cyperus compressus Grass or grass-like 1 ft Sun Medium Zone 11a
Puerto Rico palmetto Sabal causiarum Tree 50 ft Sun — Zone 10a
Puerto Rico royal palm Roystonea borinquena Tree 50 ft Shade-tolerant — Zone 11a
swamp sawgrass Cladium mariscus Grass or grass-like 8.2 ft Sun Medium Zone 8b
valdivia duckweed Lemna valdiviana Wildflower (forb) 1 in Sun High Zone 4a

Other native species recorded here 13

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.

  • Baldwin's flatsedge Cyperus croceus
  • bulltongue arrowhead Sagittaria lancifolia
  • Canada spikesedge Eleocharis geniculata
  • chairmaker's bulrush Schoenoplectus americanus
  • fragrant spikesedge Kyllinga odorata
  • globe beaksedge Rhynchospora recognita
  • lesser duckweed Lemna aequinoctialis
  • low spikesedge Kyllinga pumila
  • Richard's yelloweyed grass Xyris jupicai
  • shortleaf spikesedge Kyllinga brevifolia
  • southern cattail Typha domingensis
  • tropical flatsedge Cyperus surinamensis
  • 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, San Juan Municipio and Puerto Rico
MeasureSan Juan MunicipioTypical countyStatewide
Native species 25 6 253
Garden-ready natives 12 3 141
Tree 2 — 76
Shrub 1 — 5
Wildflower (forb) 7 — 88
Grass or grass-like 15 — 69
Vine 0 — 9
Fern 0 — 6

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with San Juan Municipio.

Look up another ZIP

Matches your ZIP to the county it mostly lies in, then lists the plants recorded as native to your state (Kew’s World Checklist and USDA PLANTS) and recorded in that county by USDA PLANTS.

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
San Juan Municipio (county FIPS 72127), Puerto Rico. 25 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

Independent reference site. No government affiliation or endorsement.