3 Giant Native Wildflowers

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The first 4 pictures above depict Hollowstem Joe Pyeweed (Eutrochium fistulosum) which grows 6 to 10 feet tall depending on sunlight exposure, soil fertility, and soil moisture. It's native to wetlands and other environment with seasonally wet or permanently wet soil conditions. This Joe Pyeweed is also adapted to moderate moisture conditions helping it to adapt to garden conditions. Essentially all of the organic matter that large herbaceous plants like Joe Pyeweed create above ground gets broken down and consumed by soil bacteria, fungi and small insects. So the more biomass (organic matter) a native plant creates - the more biomass is converted into energy for living organisms whom's energy works its way up the food chain. This plant's flowers are also one of the most popular for supporting native pollinators. If you want to grow Joe Pyeweed species in somewhat drier soils, just apply 2-3 inches of extra water per month throughout the summer months.

The last two pictures in the above gallery are of “Joe Pyeweed” - Eutrochium maculatum. This is a more northern Joe Pyeweed which is also much shorter than the aforementioned Hollowstem Joe Pyeweed Eutrochium fistulosum. The bloom shape is also flatter in comparison. If you’re within its native range, this Joe Pyeweed is friendlier to garden settings due to its average height of 4 to 6 feet tall.

Germination Tips: For all species of Joe Pyeweed, Cold Moist Stratify for at least 45 days before sowing on the surface in early to mid spring. Compress the seed into the medium. They will germinate within 10 days if the surface is kept moist.

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Tall Coreopsis (Coreopsis tripteris) is a prairie and savanna plant adapted to seasonally wet soils as well as drier soils under intense root competition from other plants. The small flowers are most favored by small native solitary bees and small butterflies. This is one of the longest lived plants of the Coreopsis genus. It's deep root system and robust growth allow it compete long-term with other aggressive plants native to the ecosystem known as the Tallgrass prairie such as Big Bluestem and Indian Grass. It ranges 5 to 9 feet in height depending on available resources. Planted in dense vegetation within gardens, it may have enough root competition to stand up straight. It’s best to never water this plant within gardens or else risk it flopping . As a background plant in pollinator gardens it adds a wispy fine textured tall layer that catches each breeze that passes animating the garden. If planted on a wood edge or the side of a house where it receives shade, it will lean away from the wood edge or building structure making it more prone to flopping. So it’s best within gardens to have it planted in full-sun away from shading objects such as trees and buildings.

Germination Tips: Moist Cold Stratify for 45-55 days before sowing on the surface in early to mid spring. Compress the seed into the medium. They will germinate within 10 days if the surface is kept moist.

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Pasture Thistle (Cirsium discolor) is a native biennial wildflower that explodes with growth during it's second year of life. The stems will commonly grow to heights over 7 feet tall, attracting caterpillars, aphids, and other plant consuming insects to take advantage of its large biomass. The flowers are of some of the most popular with native bumble bees, solitary bees, and butterflies. When it comes to bumblebees, there aren't too many plants to bloom in the late summer that are as popular as native Thistle plants. The seeds a highly favored by Goldfinches. Pasture thistle is adapted to moderate moisture as well as fairly dry soil conditions. The first year root is an edible, native plant agricultural crop. Harvest it like Evening Primrose through seeding it in the spring within a bed of itself, fostering the basal rosettes throughout the year, before digging it up in the fall or winter.

Germination Tips for plugs: Cold Moist Stratify for 40-50 days before sowing 1/4th inch below the surface and compressing the medium in the spring time. Keep surface moist during germination period. Plant the resulting plug in early summer with plenty of water during the establishment period.

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Black Raspberry - Rubus occidentalis Profile

Black Raspberry

Black Raspberries, like Fox Grapes and Muscadine Grapes, are one of the few native fruit crops that have been used in modern agricultural systems. There are even a few cultivars that are pure Black Raspberry, non-hybridized, such as ‘Jewel’, ‘MacBlack’, and ‘Munger’. Black Raspberries don’t require a full day’s sun exposure to yield well, adaptable to as low as 6 hours of direct sunlight for respectable yields. If you’re planning on growing them for wildlife food, they will attract mostly native birds in the early summer during their fruiting period.

Yellow Warbler

A Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia) feeds its nestlings within a Black Raspberry Thicket

Savanna Planting Pattern for Native Plant Agriculture

The best biologically productivity with a Black Raspberry acreage is to infuse competition friendly savanna trees at 10 to 15 trees per acre. These could be Shagbark Hickory, Red Hickory, Persimmon, Black Cherry, Black Walnut, or Honeylocust. Persimmon, Black Cherry, and Honeylocust carrying higher stocking rates per acre (15), and Black Walnut and Hickory carrying lower stocking rates per acre (10) for proper sun exposure. The combination of the spaced out native trees and thick undergrowth of Black Raspberry would result in a high diversity of native insects and their predators co-existing in the planting.

Planting in the Residential Landscape

Black Raspberries perform best on Eastern, Western, or Northern faced slopes or flatter ground in the home landscape. If you choose to put them up against your house, they will tolerate every orientation except the Northside of your home as there isn’t enough sun for them on the Northside. They tolerate full sun within average moisture soils or higher moisture soils. They are also very tolerant of partial shade. The key to vigorous Black Raspberry growth and fruit production is providing them with 2 inches of water during exceptional summer droughts. Because they fruit in early summer before mid summer droughts take place; watering during the mid summer makes the more vigorous the following year as they’re able to store up more energy through drought-free photosynthesis. The thorns on Black Raspberry aren’t as formidable as wild black berries, so berry picking can be a bit more peaceful with this species. Still the thorns provide enough defense for the Black Raspberry thickets to be chosen by nesting native birds such as the Yellow Warbler Pictured above.

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The Rubus genus is widely used as insect host plants and their flowers are an essential nectar/pollen source in the spring landscape of moist prairies, fields, wetland margins, savannas, and open woodlands. They bloom at the same time as many forest spring ephemerals that are in decline from White Tail Deer overpopulation, deforestation, and invasive shrub encroachment. So Black Raspberries help buffer the resources of early foraging pollinators with their highly accessible flowers during the mid spring. Blackberries and Raspberry species are known to support over 150 native moth/butterfly caterpillars. So not only do they provide this essential mid spring pollen/nectar - they also produce caterpillars throughout the summer that are forged for by native birds.

Germination Tips: Black Raspberries require acid scarification to germinate. This mimics the process the seeds would undergo if they were eaten by an animal. After thoroughly crushing the fruit up, exposing the seeds, expose the fruit/seed mash to Sulfuric Acid for 25 minutes. Use retail strength Sulfuric Acid with goggles and chemical gloves and rinse this acid from the seed/fruit mash after the 25 minutes of submersion. Then place the seeds in silty soil within a pot, buried halfway underground. This would happen in Early summer for Black Raspberry as that’s when the fruit ripen. Let the pot sit outdoors all summer, fall, and winter. Then in spring time rinse the silty soil away with a strainer thin enough to catch the seeds, separating them from the silty soil. Sow the seeds in early spring/late winter and expect germination by late spring. This process can also be used for Blackberry species which mature later in the summer.

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The Sunny Secret of Mayapple - Podophyllum peltatum

It's been thought that all colonies of Mayapple growing in sunny fields were the result of deforestation and then persistence by mayapples in the new, full-sun condition. We've found evidence that Mayapples can in fact spread into full sun conditions through animal dispersal of their fruit which are beloved by box turtles, foxes, coyotes, raccoon, bear, and possum. The three colonies in the first picture are growing in a Tallgrass prairie planting on land that was most recently farmland - not forested. This area has been deforested for well over 100 years at least, where in the meantime it existed as farmland which would be difficult for Mayapples to persist in.

Reproducing in Full-Sun

Another indicator that these Mayapples spread through natural seed dispersal into the open land is a new young colony in the second picture. This colony of just 4 to 5 sprouts has to be no older than 4 years of age due to the small size of its colony. This demonstrates that these mayapples are reproducing in the Tallgrass prairie planting, likely via animal seed dispersal. The great news for gardeners, is if you find Mayapple fruit/seed you can propagate them in full-sun and plan on planting them in full-sun within its native range - or as a full shade temporary ground cover.

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Full-Sun Adaptation

Mayapples are able to successful competing against aggressive prairie grass and Canadian goldenrod in these pictures because of their ephemeral nature. They sprout as early as a month before the warm season grasses and goldenrod, and their dense leaves stunt the emerging vegetation below them temporarily. This gives them enough time to bloom and produce fruit before being overgrown by the Tallgrass prairie planting. By the time they're over grown, they're still receiving more sunlight in the understory of the field than they would in a forest, which makes them quite adapted to full-sun growing conditions. The prairies they were growing in had a condition of moderate moisture. The blooms offer an abundance of nectar and pollen to Queen Bumblebees, solitary bees, and Carpenter Bees while the fruit when fully ripe is edible to humans and native mammals. Mayapples are deer and rabbit proof due to their toxic leaves.

We encourage you to spread Mayapples throughout the landscape for wildlife and/or human use. The following germination tips will help you achieve that.

Germination Tips: The seeds of Mayapple best germinate when given the summer, fall, and winter to stratify. In the Summer time when Mayapples are ripe, scoop out the seeds of the fruit. Place the seeds in a small pot full of sand or silty sand, and leave it in the shade throughout the year. The following early-spring, sow all of the sand with the seeds into pots in full sun. Expect germination within 4 to 6 weeks.

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3 Native Roses and their Biological Powers

Native Rose Bloom Bee

A native solitary bee on the native Climbing Rose - Rosa setigera

Native Roses are native to nearly every county of the United States and they extend into Central America and Canada as well. Because ornamental rose pests have been extensively studied, it is known that native roses can support at least 135 different species of native moths/butterflies as host plants. This number makes it one of the best native shrubs for acting as native moth/butterfly host plants. Native Roses aren’t finicky like ornamental roses. Instead they are vigorous and quite competitive.

What stands out amongst native roses though is their ability to support bees. They only produce pollen, not nectar, but this pollen is heavily sought out by solitary bees and bumble bees while in bloom. The fragrant, simple pink flowers range from light pink to a darker hot pink attracting native bees from far and wide. Look for Native Roses while they are in bloom from mid spring into early summer.

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Range Maps created by BONAP

Outside of deep shade of forests, there's a native rose species for every condition.

Rosa carolina (Pasture Rose) is very much adapted to grasslands, able to withstand prairie fire and sprout back up from the ground to bloom again the following year. Very Drought Tolerant.

Rosa setigera (Climbing Rose) can grow in grasslands as well as wetlands as stand alone shrubs or ascending shrubs climbing up into taller thicket species and small trees. Drought Tolerant and Wet Soil tolerant.

Rosa palustris (Swamp Rose) is most adapted to wetlands. It's able to grow in a few inches of water, permanently saturated soil, or just seasonally saturated soils. Very Wet Soil tolerant.

If you match the native rose species to the proper condition listed above, you’ll never have to water them as they are well adapted.


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In addition to being super supportive of native bees and great host plants; they are also excellent nesting habitat for smaller native birds due to the thorns and the fruit they produce is consumed during the winter when other food sources are exhausted. While Native roses offer great nesting protection from native mammals, native snakes have tough enough skin to rub past the thorns and prey on bird nests.

Native Birds and Native Mammals use the fruit in mid to late winter. Compared to the invasive multi-flora rose, native rose hips are at least 3 times as large. Between their insect hosting abilities, pollinator support, nesting attractiveness, and winter consumed fruit, you can’t go wrong by planting native roses in your landscape.

Germination Tips: In the picture above is enough Climbing Rose Hips collected for nursery - scale propagation. For your own landscape use, just collecting 5 - 10 fruits will be sufficient.  Separate the seeds from the fruit and place them in a pot with silty soil outdoors for the fall/winter. Strain the silty soil out in the spring, leaving just the seeds behind. Sow 3 to 4 seeds per pot in early spring; they’ll germinate by mid spring.

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Pollinator Traffic on Smooth Sumac - Rhus glabra

On a cloudy day in Early June, this Smooth Sumac thicket was full of native pollinators.

Smooth Sumac (Rhus glabra) was the most popular native plant with pollinators on this early June day. Many species of native flies including a bumblebee mimicking fly. Solitary bees and Wasps made up most of the other visitors.

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Whether you're considering the early spring blooms of Fragrant Sumac; the mid spring bloom of Staghorn Sumac, the Early Summer bloom of Smooth sumac, or the later summer blooms of Winged Sumac - you cannot go wrong with planting sumac species for pollinator support.

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The main condition native sumacs need to prosper is an abundance of sunlight. Fragrant Sumac is the only one of these listed sumac species that doesn't spread much through suckering. They all have reddish and orangish fall color. The two best and most sought sumacs by birds for their fruit are Fragrant Sumac and Winged Sumac. Fragrant Sumac fruits are taken early in the year, around late spring while Winged Sumac fruit are taken throughout the fall. All of these native Sumacs can be used for flavored drinks or as sumac spice. Staghorn sumac shoots can be peeled and eaten as a native vegetable. All of these species of sumac are adapted to dry open grassland conditions as well as soil that is seasonally saturated - but not wetlands.

Winged Sumac being mowed around to prevent it from spreading further.

To control Sumac suckering in the landscape, you can plant where it will be surrounded by lawn which allows you the opportunity to mow around preventing suckers from establishing.

Sumacs are known to host at least 50 native butterflies/moths caterpillars. This attracts a higher diversity and quantity of lepidopteran (moths/butterflies) to grasslands and fields where sumac is native to. Each Sumac species blooms at a time of nectar/pollen for the pollinator community. Fragrant Sumac blooms soon after Spicebush in the spring, before most plants are ready to bloom. Staghorn Sumac blooms in mid Spring, when the wildflowers of native grasslands are too few to rely on. Smooth Sumac blooms in early summer when the grassland wildflowers are just starting to gain blooming momentum and quantity. Then Winged Sumac waits until late summer during a dearth period within which summer droughts and heat waves have challenged the vitality of the landscape. It’s almost if these Sumac species have purposely chosen times of need to release their huge source of pollen and nectar. Sumac thickets either produce female - nectar bearing flowers or male - pollen bearing flowers. So when planting a sumac species - plant at least 5 to assure a mix of genders. Only the female - nectar bearing flowers will produce fruit.

Germination Tips: Naturally, wildfire stimulates mass germination of Sumac seeds, but understanding how much fire is needed to cause germination is an experiment I haven’t tried. The alternative method is acidic scarification which mimics what would happen to the seed if the fruit were consumed by an animal. Use retail strength sulfuric acid with chemical gloves and goggles to acid scarify sumac for 40 minutes. Then wash the seeds clean of the acid with a strainer. This process should happen in the fall or late summer when you collect the sumac fruit. Afterwards, outdoor cold-moist stratify the seed from the fall into the Spring before sowing in mid Spring.

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The Biology of 3 Native Edible Plants - PawPaw - Passionflower - Pecan

Top Left - PawPaw Thicket with Wingstem. Top Right - Large Sliced Pawpaw Fruit. Bottom Left PawPaw Fruit. Bottom Right - Open Grown Tree 20 feet tall.

Pawpaws (Asimina triloba) require a moderately amount of soil moisture to be highly productive. In a soil high in clay or sand content, Pawpaw can establish but will do so in a stunted manner especially if it’s competing with older tree roots and thick herbaceous plant growth for water. Climax Pawpaw production is within silty alluvial soiled bottomlands or floodplains parallel with rivers, silty rich and deep bedrock soils (residuum) or on glacial outwash soils of the glaciated regions in the U.S. They are a generalist as far as PH of soil, able to grow in PH as low as the upper 4 range and as high as +8 PH. Try to keep pawpaw production on slopes of less than 10%. Of they are to be on steeper slopes, choose a slope that faces East, North East, North, or Northwest where the soil temperature will be cooler during the summer. Pawpaws grow best on flatter topography. They’re fully tolerant of saturated winter soils that occur in seasonally high water table soils. These type of soils are found in neighborhoods within which most houses don’t have basements due to the flat poorly drained topography.

In forests, PawPaws establish as small understory trees that create suckers that await the falling of a canopy tree. Once a Canopy tree has fall, the PawPaws accelerate their growth rate to temporarily dominate the mid story within the canopy opening. This is when they become fruitful in forests. In open conditions, PawPaws can become fruitful in as little as 5 years from planting. If you want a fast growing PawPaw in your landscape, do it the favor of providing 3 to 4 inches of water per month during the summer months in the case of drought. Mowing around Pawpaws prevents it from suckering into colonies, forming single trees. Suckers cannot cross pollinate each other and create fruit. You need two pawpaws born from two different seedlings (genetically distinct) to cross pollinate and create fruit. If you’re dealing with cultivars, you need two different cultivars for fruit.

Germination Tips: Extract the seeds from the fruits. Place the seeds in a pot full of silty soil (not clayey or sandy). Leave this pot outdoors all fall and winter - buried halfway underground so it is not subjected to the coldest temperatures. In early spring, strain the silty soil from the seeds by using a hose on a jet setting and a strainer; washing the silty soil away leaving only the seeds. Sow in early spring and expect germination by mid Summer. Grow the seedings in full-sun or partial shade (either). Full-sun for the seedlings will result in larger seedlings than those grown in partial shade.

The Zebra Swallowtail is one of the better known insects whose larval form host on PawPaw (bottom). Sapsuckers maintain holes (top) in Pawpaws and other species to utilize the sap. They also consume native insects that are attracted to the sap holes and that are found elsewhere.

(This native Passionflower is being perfectly pollinated by a Carpenter Bee species (Xylocopa sp.) Resulting Fruit pictured in the bottom right.

This native Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) is a rhizomatous native vine that offers medicinal, edible, fragrant, aesthetic, and pollinator attractive qualities. When ripe the fruits’ insides will be full of juicy translucent pulp sacs that contain flat black seeds. The pulp sacs are designed to be swallowed whole by mammals with the seeds inside, so that the seeds pass through the digestive system and are deposited elsewhere. The pulp tastes like a tropical-fruit version of Capri Sun and its used to flavor ice cream, sorbet, sherbet, candy, and drinks. Passionflower naturally grows in sunny environments within native prairies, human-made fields and wood edges, and natural edges such as wetland edges, edges of thickets, and riverbanks. They are strongly rhizomatous, meaning they will pop up clones of themselves through underground stems known as rhizomes. For this reason they are best cultivated on fence lines or provided with a welded wire fence to climb, surrounding by lawn in its own bed. The mowing around the Passionflower will contain its suckering and help to keep it one place. You must plant two passionflowers born from two different seeds (genetically distinct - non-clones) to get passionflower fruit. This passionflower species is not too shade tolerant, but it’s not picky about Soil PH.

Carpenter Bee Partners (Pictured Above)

See how the carpenter bee fits perfectly between the anther (pollen releasing part of the flower), and the flower petals it stands on. As it pushes its way to the center of the flower, which holds nectar for the Carpenter Bee, the hairs behind the head get rubbed on the underside of the passionflower's anthers which in turn are dumping golden pollen onto the bee. Passionflower is in part interdependent or symbiotic with these large carpenter bees whom have a big appetite for their nectar.

Germination Tips: There are a couple of keys to getting high Passionflower germination. 1. preferably do not let them dry out if you’re able to collect them in person. If you’re buying passionflower seeds, they will be dry. To help rehydrate them, soak them in water for 5 days. The water will slowly re-saturate the seed. The cold-moist stratify them for at least 90 days or leave them in a pot outdoors all fall and winter, halfway buried underground to protect from the coldest temperatures. Sow 1/4th inch beneath the surface in the spring time. They will germinate when air temperatures consistently reach above 77 degrees.

(The Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae - left) and the Zebra Longing (Heliconius charithonia - right) caterpillars require different species of passionflower as a host plant. Both species have formidable spikes as caterpillars combined with bright colors to warn predators that they may be poisonous.

Northern Pecan

Pecan in a field, ripe pecan nuts, and a resident of Pecan trees - a Screech owl. The owl likely hunts rodents who are attracted to the pecans when the pecans begin ripening.

Pecans (Carya illinoinensis) are already well rooted in U.S. food culture. In some southern states, 30-60% of the pecan production are wild-harvested, though Native Plant Agriculture plans for the agricultural expansion of pecans; not more intensive wild-harvesting. Being a native hickory tree, they can host over 200 butterfly/moth caterpillars as well as many of other native insects. They naturally range as far north as the Illinois/Wisconsin/Iowa tri-state. When seedlings are grown from northern populations; they bear well throughout the lower midwest and mid-atlantic states (Zone 6 and much Zone 5). Pecans can attain massive size; larger than all other hickories especially when planted in bottomland or floodplain soils. They are PH Generalists, adapted to PH in the 5 to 8+ range. Their massive root systems, like that of an Oak’s, afford them good drought tolerance throughout their native range. This is the fastest growing Hickory of all trees within the Carya genus.

Germination Tips: If you’re luck enough to have found a fruiting hickory tree, create a mouse proof container. This is typically a container with drainage holes that is covered with zip-tied hardware cloth. Place the Pecans in soil within this mouse-proofed container, and bury it +85% underground. Unearth it in the spring time and sow the Pecans in full-sun. They’ll need air temperatures to consistently reach about 77 degrees before they will germinate in mass.

Pecans host many types of insects, including caterpillars (moths and butterfly larva) like the Hickory Horned Devil (Citheronia regalis, top left), Hickory Tiger Moth (Lophocampa caryae, bottom right), Red-humped Caterpillar (Schizura concinna - top right), and the Luna moth (Actias luna - bottom left). All of these caterpillars are have widespread ranges in the eastern U.S. and support many birds, reptiles, mammals, and other larger wildlife as food. Even though Pecan trees may not be native throughout the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic; these associated fauna are and can often use Pecan trees as host plants like they would a hickory tree.

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Wild Bergamot - Monarda fistulosa Profile

Wild Bergamot (Bottom Center) with Purple Coneflower, Grey Headed Coneflower, Canada Goldenrod, and Blackberry in a Native Meadow

Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) is a perennial herbaceous plant in the mint family, and if the leaves are rubbed it exudes a pleasant fragrance. The plant is edible and the flavor is somewhat similar to oregano, used as a spice in native plant agriculture. Other Indigenous People’s traditional uses include making tea from the leaves to treat viruses and various symptoms. The tea also has a slight sedative - calming effect on the mind.

Wild Bergamot is a hardy plant that spreads short distances by rhizomes (underground stems) and can quickly spread in loamy or rich soil. As they spread, they form circular shaped clumps. This plant prefers moderate moisture soils, but can handle saturated soils as well. It’s shade tolerance is moderate, capable of growing in canopy openings within floodplain forests. If your soil is exceptionally dry, just apply 1.5 inches of water per 14 days during droughts to maintain the healthiest representation of Wild Bergamot.

A Two Spotted Bumble Bee (Left) sharing a Wild Bergamot Bloom with an Eastern Carpenter Bee (Right)

This plant is a pollinator powerhouse attracting bumblebees, miner bees, cuckoo bees, and large leaf-cutting bees, bee flies, butterflies, skippers, and hummingbird moths (see below). The seeds are eaten by Goldfinches as they mature in late summer. 

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Pictured above Top Right - Hummingbird Clearwing Moth, Bottom Left Great Spangled Fritillary, Bottom Right - Two Spotted Longhorn Bee

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In Native Meadows or Native Prairies - Wild Bergamot forms an aesthetic firework show when combined with Purple Coneflower, Slender Mountain Mint, Royal Catchfly, and Grey Headed Coneflower or Early Sunflower. Be aware that these plants look spectacular during the mid summer but as the season wears on they physically degrade as they go into early dormancy especially if summer drought persists. Give them mid to late summer waterings to help them retain better aesthetic quality - in garden situations. In Meadow conditions they will blend in with the other vegetation and aesthetic decline won’t be much of an issue.

Wild Bergamot is often bound to get Powdery Mildew. There’s not much you can do about it without using potentially insect - toxic fungicides on the leaves. The condition is reduced when Wild Bergamot is given an abundance of sunlight. Powdery Mildew typically doesn’t significantly harm the plant, it just degrades the aesthetic of the leaves.

COMPANION Plants of Wild Bergamot

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Pollinator Garden Positioning of Companion Plants

The following paragraph will help you position the above pictured companion plants with Wild Bergamot in Pollinator Gardens. In front should translate to being planted on the Southeast, South, or Southwest side of Wild Bergamot. Behind translates to being planted on the Northeast, North, Northwest side of Wild Bergamot. And beside is self-explanatory - East or West side of Wild Bergamot.

Royal Catchfly - Beside or in front. Grey Headed Coneflower - Beside. Blue Wild Indigo and White Wild Indigo in front. Common Milkweed - Beside or Behind. Echinacea - in front. Early Sunflower - Beside or Behind. Yellow Crownbeard - in front. Culver’s Root -Beside. Wild Senna - Behind or Beside. Tall Boneset Beside or in front. Common Sneezeweed - in front. Ironweed - Behind. Tall Coreopsis - Behind. New England Aster - in front or Beside. Showy Goldenrod - in front.

We highly recommend Wild Bergamot for Native Meadows and Pollinator Gardens. A little goes a long way aesthetically, for example in a 14’ x 6’ bed just 5 individual plants will create a great display.

Germination Tips for Plugs: Cold moist Stratify for 30 - 40 days then surface sow - compress into surface of medium/soil when sowing.

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Elderberry - Sambucus canadensis Profile

Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) is a thicket species that thrives in permanently wet, seasonally wet, and average soil moisture conditions. The small fruits are medicinal and edible to humans when properly prepared. They’re also highly favored by a wide variety of native bird species. This thicket species is very vigorously growing, capable of growing 6 feet in one year after it’s established. They top out at 7 to 12 feet tall depending on the available moisture and surrounding competition. The blooms are born in early summer after Flowering Dogwood and the Shrub Dogwood species are finished blooming. Elderberry is primarily pollinated by short-tongued insects and small native solitary bees. In seasonally saturated or frequently saturated soils they grow well with Silky Dogwood, Gray Dogwood, Buttonbush, Ninebark, and shrub willow species. Wild growing Elderberry is a good indicator of at least moderately high soil moisture as it does not grow in drier soils. In landscape conditions, just with providing it with 2 inches of water during the summer droughts, you can get elderberry to grow in a wider range of conditions. This thicket species is adapted to partial shade as well as full sun. On river floodplains it is one of the only thicket species that can withstand the flooding waters carrying tree logs that destroy understory trees and shrubs. It survives by creating hollow branches that are easily regenerated after collision with flood-thrown logs.

Elderberries are used as an anti-viral treatment of illnesses. Science has proven that the medicinal compounds found in elderberries lessens the recovery time and severity of the flu virus and other viruses. The practice of using Elderberries as medicine originated with indigenous people within the native ranges of the Elderberry species. Today, elderberries have managed to become a small part of U.S. culinary practice and medicinal practice. You can find medicinal elderberry syrup in many health food stores. Cooking the berries to make jellies, syrup, or wine are the most common consumption routes of elderberries and cultivars have already been selected for larger berry sizes and/or flavors. These first cultivar selections of elderberry represent small gains over wild elderberries in size, but with more attention and time devoted to the cultivation of elderberries, they likely will increase more in yield and/or size per berry overtime. Elderberry commercial production has grown the quickest in Missouri where it is now the most profitable berry grown in the state.

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Above the native Elderberry Borer (Desmocerus palliatus) is pictured. Borers are a type of beetle that eats the pith, sapwood, and/or cambium of trees and shrubs. Native Borers are co-evolved with the native plants and don’t kill their host plants unlike the non-native Emerald Ash Borer that kills Ash trees. Technically the Elderberry Borer is a long horned beetle despite its common name. This beetles’ larvae develops by consuming the pith inside of the elderberry branches and roots.

Propagation (Cloning and Growing from Seed)

When exceptionally sized or yielding elderberry seedlings are found, cloning them is easy due to the rhizome production. Cutting into the elderberry thicket with a spade in the fall will expose fleshy whiteish rhizomes that can but cut into 4-5 inch pieces that will each become clones of the parent plant genetically. Taking these rhizomes and nursery propagating them into 25 gallon pots will make the rhizomes multiply after a full-growing season creating more clones of your selected Elderberry. They can also root through stem cuttings, and if you're not seeking clones; collect the seed and overwinter them in silty soil pot outside for the winter. Come early march; wash the silty soil away through a fine mesh strainer leaving the seeds behind. Sow the seeds in early march or your region's equivalent to early spring/late winter. The seeds will germinate by mid spring and can grow as large as 4 feet tall during their first season if provided with enough soil medium, fertilizer, water, and sunlight.

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Compass Plant - Silphium laciniatum profile

Compass Plant in a Prairie Dropseed sod with White Prairie Clover, Purple Prairie Clover, Wild Quinine and Prairie Dock.

Compass Plant (Silphium laciniatum) is a perennial giant of the prairies, reaching six to ten feet tall when mature. Its taproot can grow over 7ft into the ground, and Compass plants have been known to live for over 50 years. It prefers full sun and tolerates moist to dry soil conditions. The drier the soil, the shorter the flowering stem. Sometimes the flowering stem will get pruned by deer grazing early in the season resulting in a shorter flowering stem. The gold flowers have broad, long petals that help them standout from a distance. In a native meadow planting Compass Plant is an easy standout aesthetically. The foliage is drought resistant in the sense that in the case of drought, the foliage will not visually degrade in response the stress. Long-tongued bees are important pollinators of this plant, including bumblebees, miner bees, and large leaf-cutting bees. Sulfur Butterflies, Monarchs and other butterflies also visit the flowers for nectar.

Compass plant orients its leaves to the sun (read below).

It's called a compass plant because the "front" side of the leaf that does most of the photosynthesis faces east to catch morning sunlight in the cooler part of the day. The thin margin of the leaf is pointed south, minimizing sunlight exposure during the hottest part of the day. And the back side faces west. This orientation is especially true of younger, immature plants.

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Compass Plants produce excellent perching plants for grassland and native meadow birds. You may notice a concentration bird droppings on around tall meadow plants like Compass Plants because of their prime perching disposition, acting as a bit of natural fertilizer. The droppings wash off after a few rain events. Goldfinches and native rodents will eat the sunflower like seeds as they mature. In meadow mixes it will often take 4 full years or more for the Compass Plant to bloom, especially in clay soils as it takes its time drilling the taproot deep into the subsoil. Plants as deeply rooted as Compass Plant have excellent staying power among vigorous prairie grasses such as Big Bluestem, Indian Grass, Switch Grass, Little Bluestem, and Prairie Dropseed. This is also true of its cousins - Prairie Dock, Cup Plant, and Rosinweeds. This whole genus is packed full of long lived, large growing native perennials excellent for native meadow plantings. In gardens Compass Plants often flop due to lack of enough root competition. But within native prairie/native meadow plantings they are provided with enough root competition to stand high and mighty among the other native vegetation.

Germination Tips for Plugs: Cold moist Stratify for 40 or more days then sow 1/8th inch below surface.

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The Various Expressions of a Native Persimmon - Diospyros virginiana

The Ohio Champion Persimmon with human for scale, topping 87 feet tall by 46 feet wide.

In Native Plant Agriculture the native Persimmon’s adaptability and fruit productivity is unmatched. They may not achieve heights of over 40 feet tall on drier clay or sandy soils, but they will still out produce any other native or non-native fruit crop under those poor-soil conditions. They can be found from the Mississippi River floodplain to the high and dry landscapes of the Appalachian Mountain range. Persimmons naturally grow within grasslands, various forest types, savannas, and woodlands thriving in a wide PH range and wide moisture tolerance range from semi-dry to seasonally-saturated.

The cutting down of a Persimmon tree lead to the sprouting of over 40 persimmon trunks from the root system.

Personally I’ve witnessed a client cut down a single 25 foot tall persimmon tree unknowingly only for over 80 - 2 to 3 foot sprouts to arise from the root system the following summer. These would be clones though, and still need other genetically distinct trees to cross pollinate with to produce good fruit yields. Also if you didn’t know, Persimmon trees most of the time either produce male flowers or female flowers. The trees that produce the female flowers are the ones that produce fruit. Sometimes female trees can produce male flowers too.

Fire Makes Persimmon Thickets (Like pictured above)

Persimmons are very adapted to fire, in fact, fire only increases persimmon sprout growth. In one study in Oklahoma a summer prescribed burn increased persimmon sprouts from 542 individuals to 750. The winter burn was even worse for those seeking to destroy the persimmon trees, as stem quantity increased from just 17 to 583. Persimmon wood is also adapted to open prairie winds. The wood is dense and wind-tolerant to the point that these trees rarely break unless they’re near the end of their lifespan (rotten).

In just the average soils and climate of SW Ohio Persimmons reach heights of +60 feet in forest conditions, and 40 to 55 feet in open grown conditions. The largest persimmons top 80 feet in height but are still just 40-50 feet in canopy spread allowing a high density stocking rate per acre due to the columnar or “rocket” shape of the trees.

A forest grown native Persimmon tree.

Persimmons grow as much as the site conditions allow. They can be as large as an open grown Shagbark Hickory, or just a bit larger than a flowering dogwood when clinging to sandstone on a dry open ridge. They should not be undervalued for their carbon sequestering abilities. They may not be as massive as Oaks, Hickories, or Walnuts, but they can be stocked at a high density per acre. With their grassland adapted root system like that of prairie thicket species; they may be able to access water at depths of 4 feet deep or more. This is a known fact with prairie thickets species such as Hazelnut and Wild Plum, but unstudied as far as persimmon.

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The pictures above depict the fruit size variation from tree to tree. Within a single wild population, fruit size may not vary greatly but as you travel to different populations you will notice fruit size variability. Human planted persimmons can have genetics from different regions causing high variability of fruit expressions.

Where exactly does this native persimmon of different shapes and sizes belong? The answer is, wherever wildlife deposits the seeds and the trees grow to maturity whether that be in Grasslands, Savannas, Woodlands, or Forests within its native range. They have proven themselves to be adapted to most midwestern, mid-atlantic, and southeastern ecosystems. And this wide range of adaptability makes them an excellent choice for Native Plant Agricultural production, food forests, and metropolitan or rural plantings within or near their native range.

Germination Tips: Extract the seeds from the fruit. Cold Moist Stratify the seeds outdoors in a heeled in container with drainage from the fall throughout the winter. Sow in the spring, expect germination by early summer.

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Slender Mountain Mint - Pycnanthemum tenuifolium Profile

Slender Mountain in a Native Meadow Planting

Slender Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum tenuifolium) is a perennial native plant that branches in a way that creates a miniature bushy effect as its form. It grows easily in moist soils to average soils as long as it has full sun to partial sun, blooming most profusely in full-sun. It inhabits wetlands, moist to fairly dry soil prairies, meadows, gravelly areas along rivers, openings in woodlands, glades, and abandoned fields showing off a wide range of adaptability.

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Top left: Aged Pearl Crescents Top Right: A thread waisted wasp (Eremnophila aeronata) on the right with a sphecid wasp, Isodontia, on the left. Bottom Left: Great Gold Sand Digger Wasp (Sphex ichneumoneus) Bottom Right: Great Black Wasp (Sphex pensylvanicus)

The small white flowers attract many insects including long-tongued bees, short-tongued bees, wasps, flies, butterflies, skippers, and beetles. On this post the featured wasp species are completely non-aggressive as they're foraging for nectar and pollen. They would only get aggressive if a human disturbed their nests. Mammals avoid browsing the minty foliage which features a poisonous alkaloid.

Slender Mountain Mint has great staying power, able to persist among tallgrasses and short grasses for the long-run in prairies/grasslands. The small seeds stay fertile in the seed bank allowing it to pop up in old-field habitats where it hadn't existed for decades. Other mountain mint species have wide ranging adaptations like Slender Mountain Mint. If you have the opportunity to plant more than one species in your native meadow, then do so as they will likely bloom at different times and be slightly adapted to different conditions strengthening the integrity of your seed mix. In pollinator gardens Slender Mountain mint is a foreground plant in most plantings. The bright white helps highlight other midsummer flowering plants like Purple Coneflower. The fine textured foliage looks excellent before and after blooming. The seed heads carry some interest into the winter.

Companion Plants for Slender Mountain Mint

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Companion Plants (Pictured Above): Golden Alexander, Sand Coreopsis, Penstemon digitalis, Penstemon calycosus, Ohio Spiderwort, Butterflyweed, Nodding Onion, Purple Coneflower, Great Blue Lobelia, Cardinal Flower, Rudbeckia fulgida, Prairie Dock, Early Goldenrod, Dwarf Goldenrod, Mistflower, Aromatic Aster

Germination Tips for Plugs: Cold Moist Stratify for 40 or more days then surface sow - compress into surface.

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A Native Vegetable you can Grow this Spring - Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis)

Wild collected Evening Primrose roots by Jeff Knieser. When it is grown in a garden setting the roots can be twice as large as these pictured.

Evening Primrose is a fairly commonly encountered native wildflower. Indigenous peoples of the midwestern, northeastern, southeastern, and mid-atlantic U.S. cultivated this plant as a food source. Evening primrose roots could be developed into many different seed strains of different root textures, sizes, and flavors with a proper breeding program. As of now collecting seed from most wild populations (or buying seed online) produces palatable roots of good size when grown in an agricultural – low competition setting, and boiled before eaten like potatoes. Its also commercially farmed for its seed production to produce Evening Primrose Oil which is used medicinally. Only the first year root is edible, while the plant is a basal rosette. The second year the plant grows tall and flowers - and by then the root has turned woody and mostly inedible.

The Evening Primrose Moth, pictured by Stan Malcolm. Its caterpillars prefer to eat the seed heads of the plant in the second year of growth.

Cultivation

Evening Primrose is a biennial adapted to harsh soils as well as higher moisture soils, being most prolific within full-sun. As with most root crops, the more aerated the soil is, the larger the root can grow, though soils that are very sandy may create long skinny taproot formation. Very compacted clay soils will restrict the taproot growth as it does to all plants. Cold-Moist Stratify Evening Primrose seeds for 45 days, before surface seeding them onto cleared/bare soil in the early spring. Harvest the roots in late fall/early winter the same year. Again, you must harvest them at the end of the first growing season, as in the second growing season the root turns more woody and inedible.

In Bloom

Natural History

Evening Primrose would naturally occur where grazing fauna such as Groundhog, Bison, or Elk damage the perennial herbaceous layer of a grassland or meadow community creating a niche for this biennial to germinate and take root among the stunted grasses. In modern time these plants are now often seen on roadsides where herbicide applications, brush mowing, and salt damage create open niches. This is the kind of native plant with the toughness to pop up in a crack within the cement. Wild growing evening primrose roots will naturally be much smaller than those grown in a cultivated garden, due to the difference in vegetation competition.

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If you don't want to harvest the roots in year one, you will be rewarded by a profuse set of blooms lasting over 1 months time in midsummer, blooming from the evening into the morning hours and closing during the day. They are very popular with moths at night, and bumble bees in the morning. I chose to write about this plant, because unlike most native foods, evening primrose seeds are readily available for sale online. Be sure to purchase Evening Primrose seed with the scientific name - Oenothera biennis. Look for the companies that sell it by the ounce for the best pricing.

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Northern Pecans, Persimmons, and Passionflowers

940 seeds from Zone 6 and 5 adapted Pecans from Central Missouri, Central Indiana, and Chicago Illinois - to be propagated into trees.

A simple eating guide to consuming the native Passionflower fruits (Passiflora incarnata). These seeds will also be propagated in our nursery.

Indigenous Landscapes has collected via purchase and donation; pecan seeds from Central Missouri, Central Indiana, and Chicago. This is the beginning of a proven northern adapted pecan breeding grove, though most of the resulting saplings from this seed collection will be sold through Indigenous Landscapes fall of 2020 to support our land purchases that will promote native plant agriculture. Like Passionflowers and Persimmons; Pecans with genetic origin from too deep in the south don’t fruit or flower correctly when planted in northern zones (4,5,6). But naturally Passionflowers, Pecans, and Persimmons have northern populations that are locally adapted and it is these populations that fruit and flower on time to be productive in northern climates. So when you find a planted or wild Passionflower or Pecan that is maturing its fruit correctly in these zones, what you have is genetic expression that can be cultivated into a breeding grove of sorts to produce more northern adapted plants. Whether the intention is for Native Plant Agriculture (NPA) or wildlife support, the northern adapted strains are the best strains to benefit your project.

From Top to bottom these pecans were produced in 1. Indianapolis, Indiana 2. Central Missouri 3. Central Missouri 4. Central Missouri and 5. Chicago, Illinois.

In our particular breeding grove we won’t be mixing Missouri adapted genetics with the Chicago and Indianapolis born pecans as the more northern born pecans have better potential of being productive in Zone 5 where as the Missouri adapted genetics are more likely to be most productive in Zone 6 and 7. When we ship our saplings out fall of 2020, Zone 6 and 7 customers will get a mix of the Missouri genetics and zone 5 customers will get a mix of the Chicago and Indianapolis genetics. Years from now, people throughout zone 5 through 7 will have locally adapted pecans and will be able to continue on the selection process if they’re interested. Each year we’ll introduce more pecans from different populations found within zones 5 and 6 to invigorate the gene pool.

The same process will be repeated with Passionflower, mixing genetics of zone 6 fruiting Passionflowers for either wildlife value or native plant agriculture saving a few for our local breeding patch and shipping the majority out for sale each fall.

We’ve already begun this process with Common Persimmon as well, collecting from persimmons that drop their entire fruit crop fully ripe in August and September which are zone 5 and zone 6 adapted persimmons. The persimmons that get stuck up in the tree into the winter in these northern zones are also from southern genetic origin which causes the tree to go dormant before the fruit are fully ripe. The most productive persimmons for wildlife or native plant agriculture in zones 5 and 6 are of northern genetic origin with fruit that fall fully ripe to the ground before the tree goes dormant.

In these simple ways of evaluating, creating viable seed strains of northern adapted pecans, persimmons, and passionflowers is not difficult.

Common Persimmons (Diospyros virginiana) showing northern adaptation by dropping their full crop fully ripe in September before the frost even threatens.

Common Persimmons (Diospyros virginiana) showing northern adaptation by dropping their full crop fully ripe in September before the frost even threatens.

Passionflower fruit fully ripe in late September, showing northern adaptation.

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The Myth of the Thicket-less Prairie

The early spring blooms of Wild Plum species (left), and mid to late summer fruiting of Dogwood species (right) plus their presence as insect host plants rebalances and increases the biological value of prairies.

The early spring blooms of Wild Plum species (left), and mid to late summer fruiting of Dogwood species (right) plus their presence as insect host plants rebalances and increases the biological value of prairies.

Throughout the eastern half of the U.S. and the midwest there's a pervasive misunderstanding of the natural place of native thicket species. If you read through pioneer journals and land surveyor accounts you'll notice many descriptions of the eastern grasslands featuring "a mile of thicket" or "shrubby fields/openings". Thickets so dense horses had to be routed around them. These descriptions come from a time where the interconnectedness of the ecosystems allowed for fires to spread wide and many of these accounts were made soon after the removal and displacement of Native American people/culture within which fire was set more often than would naturally occur. Despite that historical high frequency of fire, native thicket species were present and established part of the grasslands, savannas, and wetlands. This is because these shade intolerant thicket species evolved in the open environments of grasslands, savannas, and wetlands as permanent community members.

In a thicket’s maturity, the herbaceous layer is still present, but suppressed enough to not be able to carry a hot enough fire to burn the interior trunks. Only the edges can be burned back at this stage which is likely how they have co-evolved wit…

In a thicket’s maturity, the herbaceous layer is still present, but suppressed enough to not be able to carry a hot enough fire to burn the interior trunks. Only the edges can be burned back at this stage which is likely how they have co-evolved with fire prone landscapes. Still Groundnut and other herbaceous species are productive in this thicket understory.

Fire Adaptation of Native Thicket Species

While you may find remnants of the thicket aspect of the grassland ecosystem on man-made artificial edges (if not overcome by invasive plants), when you find an intact open-grown native thicket, you can start to see how they are actually fire adapted when the thicket is unfragmented and mature enough. The grassland and savanna - thicket community is made of up a mix of rhizomatous and singular formed trees/shrubs that, in combination, suppress the fuel of the herbaceous layer. This prevents a fire from being able to be hot enough to burn the interior of the thicket, however fire keeps the thicket from expanding endlessly as the edges of the thicket where the herbaceous layer produces enough fuel is always vulnerable to being burned back. See the interior of the pictured Wafer Ash, Roughleaf Dogwood, and Wild Plum thickets in the slideshow below to see this concept.

Most thicket species, without restoration efforts, now fail to form this continuous thicket micro-environment primarily due to invasive plant pressure and displacement from their grassland/savanna/wetland habitats to artificial man-made edges. This is the similar predicament grassland-savanna herbaceous plants are in; unable to expand or persist due to fragmentation from habitat loss (livestock feed production-corn/soy), and invasive plant pressure disrupting new establishment.

All of the fauna above are either specialists (the insects) or beneficiaries of 1 single thicket species, the American Hazelnut, demonstrating the biological value thickets provide to these communities. We exapanded on Hazelnut biology on this post …

All of the fauna above are either specialists (the insects) or beneficiaries of 1 single thicket species, the American Hazelnut, demonstrating the biological value thickets provide to these communities. We exapanded on Hazelnut biology on this post here. But this is just one of many thicket species.

Why Thickets Matter - Food Chain Restoration

Thickets are dwarf-forests of the grasslands, savannas, and wetlands that produce what the herbaceous layer does not. For example, most native thicket species bloom in the spring and early summer; in Southwest Ohio that's April through mid June). This is also when the wetland, savanna, and grassland communities' herbaceous layers have little to no pollen/nectar. This matters because keystone pollinators like bumble bee species' queens rely on these spring blooming species to raise their first wave of female worker bees from eggs, who will then help expand the hive and pollinate many herbaceous wildflowers that bloom later in the year. Other solitary, early emerging native bee species can’t use the grassland/savanna/wetland ecosystems much at all without thicket species supplying their spring and early summer pollen/nectar supplies. Early emerging pollinators become limited to relying on the remaining spring ephemeral populations in forest ecosystems to sustain their populations. They also use forest trees such as Black Cherry, Black Gum, Sassafras, Red Maple and forest-thicket species such as Spicebush, Leatherwood, Black Haw Viburnum, and Maple leaf Viburnum. But all of these plant species are part of the forest ecosystem, distinct from the prairie-wetland-savanna ecosystems. The thickets are all the prairie-wetland-savanna ecosystems have to offer in spring/early summer.

In addition to balancing the pollen/nectar production of the grasslands/wetlands/savannas, the contribution of the leaves alone of native thickets greatly enhances the diversity of insect production. Just add the combined potential caterpillar host numbers for Chokecherry, Wild Plum, Native Crabapples, Hawthorn, Native Roses, Viburnum species, and Hazelnut and you'll see there's a potential 1,300+ species of moths/butterflies that would be hosted, again, within these ecosystems if just those thicket species alone were given proper restoration attention.

Consider too; Modern Day Food Chains

In the absence of Bison, Elk, and Wolf; the major cyclers of the energy of the herbaceous layer of grasslands are nearly completely absent in the eastern half of the U.S. which makes the native thicket aspect of grasslands, wetlands, and savannas even more so relevant and valuable in modern food chains. Outside of insect production, the largest remaining cycler of energy are native rodents that are preyed upon by lager mammals, though thickets support rodents too primarily because rodents eat the seeds of most of the thicket species. Each thicket species produces a fruit or seed that is edible to either mammals (including rodents), birds, and insects as well as the insect diversity contribution of the leaves/vegetation as host plants for thousands of thicket genus or species specialized insects.

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Where to Restore Native Thickets

Small fragmented remnant prairies are more-so botanically significant than biologically valuable (due to small size and fragmentation), and that botanic herbaceous diversity should be protected from thicket growth, of course. But when it comes to the thousands of acres of prairies being restored/reconstructed, and larger remnant prairies; the restoration of savanna, wetland, and grassland ecosystems should include the thicket aspect of the community for appropriate biological/food chain value.

Understand the value and place of native thickets on their unique and essential contributions via distinct insect production, micro-climate creation/shelter, and fruit/seed/nut production that the herbaceous layer cannot produce. The modern maintenance of the thicket-less grassland/savanna is a misinterpretation of the biology of these open communities. These specific thicket species can only persist in grassland, wetlands, and savannas due to their shade intolerance which partly demonstrates their co-evolution and interdependence as these are the only ecosystems that hold a viable niche.


Thicket Species Slideshow

Pictured in this Slideshow is a sample of native thicket species. This slideshow only represents a portion of thicket species native to the Eastern Half of the U.S. There are many Thicket, and Sub-Thicket species native to the open environments of the U.S. What we’re referring to as thicket species can co-exist with each other such as Wafer Ash, Wild Plum species, Devil’s Walking Stick, Hawthorn species, Hazelnuts, Dogwood species, and Lance-leaf Buckthorn. Sub-Thicket species can’t co-exist with those taller thicket species, and have evolved other ways of being a part of the herbaceous layer such as Blackberry species, native Rose species, Coralberry, Native Spirea, Blueberries, Lead Plant, Saint John’s Wort, and New Jersey Tea.

Notice how +85% of these Thicket species bloom in the spring or early summer before the herbaceous layer of the savanna, wetland, and grassland ecosystems is producing much nectar/pollen at all.

Thicket Species in this Slideshow: Wafer Ash, American Hazelnut, Common Wild Plum, Quapaw Wild Plum, Chickasaw Wild Plum, Smooth Sumac, Winged Sumac, Staghorn Sumac, Fragrant Sumac, Rusty BlackHaw Viburnum, Arrowwood Viburnum, Lanceleaf Buckthorn, American Hazelnut, Silky Dogwood, Roughleaf Dogwood, Gray Dogwood, Nine Bark, Prickly Ash, Eastern Wahoo, Sweet Crabapple (Native), Carolina Buckthorn and Scarlet Hawthorn.

Sub Thicket Species in this Slideshow: Smooth Rose, Climbing Rose, Swamp Rose, Coralberry, Blackberry, Meadowsweet Spirea.

Beyond Despair – Strategic Invasive Plant Action 

Beyond Despair – Strategic Invasive Plant Action 

The umowed fescue field turning into Callery pears, the fence line covered in invasive vines and shrubs, and the burning bush in your neighbor’s yard maybe within one’s circle of concern but these things are out of your control. Focus on expanding your circle of control and influence through forming or joining a local group group. Learn about and choose the highest quality environments remaining in your region so that you can and make an impact where there’s the most left to lose; and most left to save. 

Who Disperses Invasive Pears?…1 way to Minimize Invasion

Watch Video Above Before Reading Article

Starlings; the primary dispersers of Invasive Pear trees (Pyrus calleryana)

Invasive European Starlings are a dominant species in metropolitan landscapes which also is where Callery Pear varieties are most concentrated in landscape plantings. In the fall you’ll notice the starlings gather in large flocks of hundreds to thousands consuming in mass; Callery Pear fruits, Amur Honeysuckle berries, and also stripping native food sources clean such as Poison Ivy fruits and Eastern Red Cedar fruits that native birds prefer.

When you see fields, vacant land, and unmowed pastures of pears and honeysuckle establishing; consider what birds utilize these non-native plant dominated open environments?

You may see a killdeer, a native sparrow species or possibly a meadowlark if the field is large and diverse enough, but none of these birds eat Callery Pear fruits. The single species of native bird that likely contributes to a small amount of dispersion of Callery pear fruits into open environments is the American Robin, who do utilize these open environments, but never with the flock quantity or consumption quantity of the invasive starling flocks that strip the large majority these trees clean during their murmuration season. Robins do mass-consume fruits, but with the exception of ornamental crabapples and a few callery pear fruits, their consumption and dispersion is nearly purely of native plant fruits.

Starling foraging patterns of mass shrub/tree/vine fruit stripping followed by field/pasture ground foraging make them uniquely adept foresters of trees, shrubs, and vines. Unfortunately on this continent, they’re creating invasive plant thickets/woodlands.

In the fall, European Starlings alternate between Tree/Shrub fruit foraging to ground foraging in lawns, fields, prairies, and farm fields that become invaded by whatever tree/shrub species they eat in mass if left unmown and/or unburned. Since the …

In the fall, European Starlings alternate between Tree/Shrub fruit foraging to ground foraging in lawns, fields, prairies, and farm fields that become invaded by whatever tree/shrub species they eat in mass if left unmown and/or unburned. Since the introduction of Callery Pears, Starlings have a new favorite item on the menu.

Unmowed/Unburned Open Environments are most Suceptible to Pear Invasion

The invasive tree/shrub fruit stripping proceeded by ground foraging allows for mass depositing of invasive plant seeds into vacant land/fields, farmland, lawns, and pastures which is how unmowed fields turn into even-aged stands of Callery pears and Amur Honeysuckle. This pattern also forms a management tactic for preventing Callery invasion. Keeping fields, vacant land, lawns, and pastures mowed at least once 1 year, preferably during the dormant season prevents woody plant invasion of all kinds. Where native prairies are established and prescribed burns are possible; burns can replace the annual once a year mowing. Missing just 2 or 3 years straight of mowing or burning one of these open environments can allow Callery pears to grow thick enough to damage some bush hogs. By year 5 of no mowing most bush hogs and tractor mowers can’t handle mowing an acre of 3” to 4” thick pear trunks. So, how do we manage these open environments in a way that fosters biodiversity while excluding Callery Pear Invasion?

It is thought that native thickets are prone to invasion due to remnant populations often being draped in invasive plants, but this is a misinterpretation of the landscape. Most often native thickets are limited to artificial edges where they can’t …

It is thought that native thickets are prone to invasion due to remnant populations often being draped in invasive plants, but this is a misinterpretation of the landscape. Most often native thickets are limited to artificial edges where they can’t form an interior as pictured above. When native thickets are allowed to form continuous unfragmented communities within open landscapes, they close the niche to invasive woody plants like this Quapaw Wild Plum (Prunus hortulana) is demonstrating.

Cultivating Biodiversity While Closing the Open Environment from Callery Pear INVASION

This land management prescription is only for the pasture/field/prairie/vacant environments that are quickly turning into Callery Pear Forests.

Forming Continuous, Unfragmented Native Thicket

1. After Callery Pear/Honeysuckle removal; establish a native a mix of colonizing native thicket species and non-colonizing native thicket species to be managed as continuous un-fragmented thicket. As you can see in the Quapaw Wild Plum (Purnus hortulana) picture above, when native thicket species are allowed to establish continuously they form highly competitive interiors that are resistant to invasive plant invasion; though edges of thickets will always need some periodic management. Failure to create a continuous thicket will lead to invasive plant invasion throughout the native thicket, the niche needs to be closed and stabilized through unimpeded native thickets growth wherever the land won’t receive an annual mowing or burn. Good news is these native thicket species are perpetually trying to form this dwarf forest, and if they’re allowed to, they will. See the short list of colonizing thicket species and non-colonizing thicket at the end of the post.

Wrapping Annually Mowed or Burned Native Meadow/Prairie around the Native Thickets

2. If the land can be mowed or burned, establish a native prairie/meadow around the native thicket species. The more diverse the native prairie with competitive grasses and long lived prairie wildflowers, the more resistant the meadow/prairie will be to pear invasion. But as along as you’re sticking to mowing it once a year in the dormant season, then the make up of the native meadow/prairie matters less as the mowing will prevent pear invasion. On the other hand, the prairie grasses are necessary to create hot enough fires to burn back pear invasion. We don’t recommend burning the meadow/prairie until 10 years after the thicket species are planted so that the thickets have enough time to create dense enough colonies to resist fire damage. Fire is also non-selective where as mowing operator can mow around new native colonial thicket suckers allowing the thicket species to expand their footprint. The goal of the management plant should be to create a combination of continuous large islands of thickets in combination with annually mowed or burned native prairie/meadow to foster good ecological value and invasive plant resistance through a fully occupied and competitive native plant environment.

Here’s a list of colonizing and non-colonizing Native thicket species; plant them on 18-22 foot centers. Check to see if they’re native to your region before selecting them and chose 2 Colonizing species per 1 non-colonizing species for most effective land coverage. The exact thicket species selection ultimately should be determined by the characteristics of your site which often requires a native plant-skilled professional to determine.

Alternative to Planting Native Thickets:

Plant Native Meadows/Native Prairie on the site of the open field/pasture, and mow this landscape once a year in the winter time to prevent Callery Pear invasion. Spaced out Native Trees in the field will add to biodiversity value of the land and can easily be mowed around.

Native Colonial Thicket Species (Space Eaters/Niche Closers)

Wild Plum species; Sumac Species, Roughleaf Dogwood, Gray Dogwood, Chokecherry, Rusty Blackhaw Viburnum, Devil’s Walking Stick, American Hazelnut, Prickly Ash

Non-Colonial Thicket Species

Wafer Ash, Hawthorn Species, Eastern Redbud, Silky Dogwood, Arrowwood Viburnum, Native Crabapple species (i.e. Malus coronaria), Native Roses

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6 Native Plant Agricultural Fruit Crops

6 Native Plant Agricultural Fruit Crops

Native Plant Agriculture (NPA) is the implementing of edible native plants as the basis of a primarily perennial agricultural system that mimics native plant communities in format. The goal of NPA is to expand native vegetation back into agricultural land to support a significant level of biodiversity while improving human-food productivity for a changing climate and growing population. 

A Native Plant Propagation Guide and Nursery Model

Hyperlinks for the Printed-Version

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Part 1. A Native Nursery Model - 4 Chapters ; A Guide for Empowerment, Nursery Materials vs. Pay-off, Nursery Layout, Watering and Fencing

Part 2. Native Plant Propagation – 6 Chapters; Herbaceous Plants, Woody Plants, Recommended Pots and Fertilizers, Seed Sowing and Transplanting Seedlings, Growing on a Micro-scale for Small Projects, Organic Pest Management

Part 3. Sales, Installation, and Native Plant Horticultural Guidance – 3 Chapters; Selling the Plant Stock, Installation, and Native Plant Horticultural Guidance

This page servers as the external, online document to bring the printed version of this book to life by providing the hyperlinks available in the e-book version to readers who chose the printed version.

The links are organized by Chapter, and in sequential order.

This Book is designed to empower individuals, businesses, non-profits, and public organizations to grow high quality native plants for their projects in support of biodiversity and restoration. The 13 Chapter eBook is sectioned off into 3 parts; Part 1. A Native Nursery Model, Part 2. Native Plant Propagation, Part 3. Sales, Installation and Native Plant Horticultural Guidance.

Our goal with this Book is to make the lack of native plant availability a non-issue through providing people the native plant tailored horticultural knowledge needed to propagate native plants. It is most applicable to the states and regions depicted on the underlying map of the book cover. The information in this ebook is sourced from the first hand experience of the business; Indigenous Landscapes.

The Printed book price is $19.75 + $2.75 Shipping within the U.S.

The ebook version is $18.50 available at this link. Kobo works with with PC, and tablets or smartphones - but not Mac-Laptops.

I. A Native Nursery Model - Chapters

A Guide for Empowerment - Chapter 1.

Native Plant Agriculture

Nursery Materials Vs. Pay-Off - Chapter 2.

Micro/Macro Nutrient Liquid Fertilizer—-Anderson Band Pots —-800 conetainer pots —-5 foo T-Post—--Fencing —-Nursery Mat —-Staples—-Wheelbarrow—-16’ x 20’ Tarp —-Scoop Shovel —-Timer —-Hose—-Sprinkler —-3 gram Fertilizer Tablets —-Micronutrient 50lb bag—--Bareroots for tree/shrub production——Resources such as this one

Nursery Layout - Chapter 3.

(none)

Watering and Fencing - Chapter 4.

Video Example—-Oscillating sprinkler —-This simple timer

II. Native Plant Propagation - Chapters 5-10

Herbaceous Plants - Chapter 5.

Click and read safety information—-Outdoor stratification tray

Woody Plants - Chapter 6.

See Image Here—-2-3 inches of leaves—-Non-poisonous method—-Click and read safety information—-Stratification box—-Pot-loading video—-“Point A”—-Here’s a link to a video

Recommended Pots, Pot-Loading, and Fertilizer - Chapter 7.

D40L Deepots—-Mini-Tree pots (MT37)—- D60L—-Tree Pots (CP412CH)—-Anderson Band Pots (AB512)—-D40L—-MT37—-D60L—-CP412CH—-AB512—-Support boards recommended—-Pot Loading and Fertilizer Application Video —-Fill the pots to the top—-Fertilizer application step ——Micronutrient —— NPK Micronutrient ——Liquid Fertilizer Application—— 10 gram NPK/Micronutrient tablets

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Above is a better quality picture of nutrient deficient - yellow-green plants with uneven growth in the tray.

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View this linked picture which shows healthy plants (not linked, it’s just posted above)

Nutra-green liquid fertilizer

Seed Sowing and Transplanting Seedlings - Chapter 8.

The Sheets

Growing on a Micro-Scale for Small Projects - Chapter 9.

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Nutra Green Liquid Fertilizer—-Osmocote

Organic Pest Management - Chapter 10.

A slug/snail attracting pellet——Milkweed tussock moth—-Electric based trap—-Small dog crate

III. Sales, Installation, and Native Plant Horticulture - Chapters 11-13

Selling the Plant Stock - Chapter 11.

Forest Types of SW Ohio and SE Indiana —-Ray Leach conetainers

Installation - Chapter 12.

Auger—-See our planting video —-Native Meadow Installations—--Native plant agricultural—-Native thicket conservation

350 Anderson Band, 1.14 gallon grown spicebush—-Provided video—-Sold by Plantra—-3 oz plastic woven fabric cut out—-6” Staples

Native Plant Horticultural Guidance - Chapter 13.

Horticulturally Adaptable Native Plants Spreadsheet —-Planting in a Post-Wild World—-Planting a New Perspective—-Gardens of the High Line —-This website link

Our Mission

Native Plant Agriculture

For a broader Indigenous Landscapes educational resource see this website link.
This page consolidates our educational facebook page posts, and E-Books for your educational use. Our topics range from native thickets, savannas, forests, grasslands, native plant gardening, invasive species, native plant agriculture, native wetlands, and native-aquaculture.

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As of 2019, our Facebook Business Page is the number 1 native plant, restoration, and sustainable horticulture page as far as likes, comments, and shares per post; proportionate to our total FB followers. We think it’s a page worth clicking the “see first” option on as we aim to provide high quality material with each post, typically posting 3 times a week.

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This Newsletter will be sent out 6-8 times a year, announcing E-Books, Presentations, and Events such as our future Native Food Festivals that will promote Native Plant Agriculture.