The Best National Parks in the United States for Plant Lovers

Rebecca R. Norris
·2 min read
long exposure of bridal veil falls in cuyahoga valley national park, ohio, in summer
The Best U.S. National Parks for Plant LoversAnna Gorin - Getty Images

Calling all plant lovers: Before you book your next national park adventure for summer, you may want to keep the latest Casago findings in mind.

Casago, a vacation rental and property management company, has been hard at work analyzing National Park Service data to determine the top 10 National Parks in America, based on plant biodiversity. To do so, they sourced the number of plant species in each national park from the National Park Service’s Integrated Resource Management Applications (IRMA) portal.

Their findings indicate the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which straddles the border of North Caroline and Tennessee, is home to the most plant species (2,278), with New River Gorge in West Virginia coming in at a close second (2,005). While these parks tout the most impressive biodiversity, they’re not the best national parks in the United States for plant lovers, as the plants are spread out and zone specific.

With this in mind, Casago further honed their analysis to determine the number of plant species present per 100 km² in each park, which unveiled the parks that are lushest of all. Perhaps surprisingly, they found that Cuyahoga Valley in Ohio tops the list, with 935 plant species per 100 km², 23 of which are labeled as rare.

Interested in seeing the whole list? The best national parks in the United States for plant lovers are as follows:

  1. Cuyahoga Valley, Ohio: 935 plant species per 100 km²

  2. Congaree, South Carolina: 804 plant species per 100 km²

  3. Mammoth Cave, Kentucky: 749 plant species per 100 km²

  4. Haleakala, Hawaii: 712 plant species per 100 km²

  5. New River Gorge, West Virginia: 686 plant species per 100 km²

  6. Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado: 673 plant species per 100 km²

  7. Bryce Canyon, Utah: 672 plant species per 100 km²

  8. Wind Cave, South Dakota: 626 plant species per 100 km²

  9. Pinnacles, California: 619 plant species per 100 km²

  10. Acadia, Maine: 613 plant species per 100 km²

So now the question is, which park will you visit first?

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