Two students from Maryland are being recognized by state and national organizations after creating an app that spotlights the best native plants that support local wildlife.
Through their combined interest in STEM and passion for conservation, sisters Sufyana and Aydina Johnson launched the Maryland Native Plants Search app as a means to support community green teams.
The app was built with a simple objective in mind: help attract Maryland’s native species and pollinators in order to benefit the environment.
Included in the app is a list of plants native to the Old Line State, all of which are categorized based on light, soil and overall habitat needs.
But, also spotlighted in the app are plants that can be used to either attract certain wildlife or repel unwanted insects and animals (here’s looking at you mosquitoes).
As Sufyana built the app through HTML, CSS and JavaScript programming, Aydina developed the plant database and research to match plant to animals in the Maryland and Piedmont region, according to a release from the Maryland Department of the Environment.
“Most recently, they completed a major update to the app that adds information about Maryland trees, including how to register newly planted trees and maintain them over time,” the release said.
The sisters’ efforts initially began through their green space work with the Islamic Community Center of Potomac and its partnership with the National Wildlife Federation’s Sacred Ground initiative, which works to strengthen the community projects of various houses of worship.
The app has been recognized by the NWF, Chesapeake Bay Trust, and Montgomery County’s Department of Environmental Protection.
WTOP’s Grace Newton contributed to this report.
