Rare plants and animals, and natural communities


Wildflowers in a meadow with rainy sky
Mead's milkweed at the KU Field Station

The Kansas Natural Heritage Inventory maintains an integrated database management system containing comprehensive biological data on the plants, animals and natural communities of Kansas.

Conservation status ranks have been assigned to all plants, all vertebrate animals and select invertebrate animals. Site-specific location data are maintained for more than 400 taxa of rare plants and 238 species of rare animals, as well as for the 67 natural plant communities identified in the state.

We have been developing these databases for more than 35 years and continue to add updated information as it becomes available. Thus, the Heritage program is a comprehensive source of both historical and current information on the biodiversity of Kansas. This information is a valuable resource that can be used to assist with project planning, environmental review, research and conservation planning.

Lists of rare plants, animals and natural communities

Our Element Tracking lists identify the species and natural communities for which we collect site-specific occurrence data. Each species and natural community is assigned global and state conservation status ranks. 

Other information available from our Program

Please contact Jennifer Delisle (jdelisle@ku.edu) to obtain documents and publications not linked from this page. 

Links to other resources on Kansas plants and animals

Kansas wildflower photo gallery (KU Libraries)

Kansas Mammal Atlas

Kansas Herpetofaunal Atlas

Kansas Threatened and Endangered Wildlife (Kansas Dept. of Wildlife and Parks)