The Climate Match Tool identifies areas around the world with matching climates to a selected region of interest in North America. Users can compare a plant species’ known distribution around the world with areas that have similar climate conditions, based on precipitation, plant hardiness zone, and ecozone. The output lets users to determine whether the species already grows in environments similar to their region of interest and has the potential to naturalize and become invasive in that area.
This tool was initially developed by the PlantRight project (www.plantright.org) to assist horticultural partners in screening potential new plant introductions. The tool is now overseen by Cal-IPC to help land managers assess the future risk of nonnative plants in defined areas. The tool is built and maintained by GreenInfo Network (www.greeninfo.org).