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Native plants used for revegetation must be able to grow and become established rapidly, whether transplanted as seedlings or directly seeded. Quick methods for predicting performance and identifying genotypes for a given environment are needed to improve revegetation success. Dark respiration rates measured in field and laboratory by microcalorimetry, infrared gas analysis, or oxygen electrodes are proposed as means for identifying plants for revegetation projects. Several accessions of Achillea millefolium, Artemisia tridentata, Bromus tectorum, Poa secunda, and Stipa thurberiana were collected from different locations and grown in common gardens. Growth was measured as linear extension growth and/or increase in dry weight per unit time. In some cases, visual estimates of chlorophyll content and wet-dry weights were used as an index of viability-particularly in an extended drought. Differences in metabolism were correlated with differences in the environment of origin. For example, Poa secunda from dry sites was metabolically distinct from Poa secunda from more mesic sites, even when both were grown in common gardens. Young leaves differed from fully expanded leaves in both metabolic rate and pathways, Metabolism is greatly affected by environmental factors such as temperature, light intensity, drought, salt, heavy metals, air pollution, etc., but still predicts growth at extant conditions. Growth rate predictions based on metabolic rate measurements generally agreed with predictions based on C-13/C-12 ratios, but respiration rate measurements are faster and less expensive than isotopic ratios and are applicable to C-4 as well as C-3 plants.