Pocket Prairie Plant Factoids: 2022 - Iowa State University ...
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Pocket Prairie Plant Factoids: 2022
Plants
✓ All the M2M pocket prairie plants feed pollinators; many host and even over-winter pollinator eggs and larvae.
✓ The plants are “local ecotypes” grown from local Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota seed.
✓ Only Bradbury’s Monarda is not considered native to Dubuque or adjacent counties.
Site
✓ M2M pocket prairie plants thrive with at least 6 hours of direct, mid-day sunlight in dry, well-drained soil.
✓ Good drainage is essential. many plants are susceptible to crown and root rot from wet winter soils.
✓ Fertilizer is not desirable. These tough, durable prairie plants can become leggy, weak, and floppy if fertilized.
✓ They are sensitive to sprayed herbicides, even if the spraying is not close to the prairie patch.
✓ When hungry or curious, deer will eat anything. Plants especially attractive to deer and rabbits need protection.
✓ Even “black walnut resistant” plants may suffer if they are under 50 feet away from the closest walnut branches.
Providing for Pollinators
✓ Pollinator host plants will be eaten and/or inhabited by pollinator larvae and caterpillars. Avoid insecticide use.
✓ Even “organic” pesticides will cause pollinator deaths.
✓ Provide bare ground for native bees that live and overwinter underground. Nearby water, sunny basking rock
surfaces, brush piles, and dead wood with beetle holes increase your planting’s attractiveness to pollinators.
✓ Leave foliage in place through the winter for winter interest and for overwintering insects. In early spring, put
hollow stems to one side, mow high, and leave coarsely chopped foliage and seeds in the pocket prairie bed.
Mulching
✓ Two inches of organic mulch can minimize weeds until the plants begin to leaf out and spread.
✓ Easily decomposed mulching materials (chopped/shredded straw or leaves) can be preferable to wood chips.
✓ Keep mulch several inches away from plant stems and crowns to avoid crown rot, especially during winter.
PAGE 2
Anise Hyssop Blue Giant Hyssop Lavender Hyssop Agastache foeniculum
• 3-feet high. Showy 4- to 5-inch-tall blue purple spike can bloom for month from
June to September, even in the first year.
• Dead heading extends the bloom period.
• Emerges late in May. Taller than it is wide. Strong central stem with many side
branches.
• Spreads by rhizomes. Considered a short-lived perennial (4 to 5 years) but self-sows
on open ground. Seedlings are easily weeded out.
• Blend with shorter yellow/orange flowers and with mounding grasses.
• Upright, clump-forming, fragrant, anise-scented foliage leaves used in herbal teas
and jellies.
• Seeds can be added to cookies and muffins. Flower spikes used in fresh cut and dried
arrangements.
• Not considered a Dubuque County native but is a native in Clayton County (next county north).
• The most important requirement for this plant to thrive is good drainage to avoid crown and root rot which
develops in poorly drained soils.
• Mulch holds too much water. Mulch lightly around several inches away from anise hyssop or not at all.
• Not tolerant of nearby black walnuts.
• Attracts hummingbirds, butterflies including common wood nymph, painted fady, skippers, moths, nectar- and
pollen-seeking bees and beneficial flies. Seeds attract American goldfinches and their young.
Black-Eyed Susan Rudbeckia hirta
• A widely recognized, 2-foot tall, drought-resistant, yellow native flower with a long
blooming period that lives a few years and disappears unless reseeding is allowed.
• Biennial that can bloom the first year from seed planted in early spring.
• Rich soils will produce leggy, weak-stemmed plants.
• It can become aggressive, but it will lose ground to the longer-lived perennial plants
as they mature.
• The slender taproot has no rhizomes; spreads by seed. Reliably self-seeds on open
ground.
• An important plant for midsummer pollinators.
• The flowers provide a yellow dye.
• Native to almost all the US east of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.
• Occasional reports of the foliage poisoning cows and pigs.
• Hosts many butterfly and moth species including pearl crescent, silvery checkerspot, and the emerald moth.
• A favored nectar source for the northern metalmark and the gorgone checkerspot butterfly and for
hummingbirds. Expect goldfinches and juncos and other seed-eating birds to visit the seed heads.
Bradbury’s Monarda Eastern Beebalm Monarda bradburiana
• Low, compact clump-forming, 1 to 2-foot-tall with pink to purple blooms in May/June.
• “Easy to grow and easy to enjoy, mingling energetically with other plants.” Tolerates sun and shade conditions.
• One of the few native plants used as-is (no “improved” cultivars) in more formal gardens
• Native to southern Missouri and Illinois which are part of an eco-region that encompasses the Dubuque area.
PAGE 3
• Selected to fill in the M2M pocket prairie gaps, along the edges and/or to provide
ground cover when shooting star becomes dormant in summer and disappears.
• The blossoms will attractively grow through and above the young blades of Prairie
Dropseed.
• Tends to self-seed and fills in open spaces and to add color and contrast.
• Minty, oregano smell that appears to repel deer and rabbits. Photo is Monarda fistulosa
• Grayish-green leaves may be used in teas. but very similar flower
• Flowers produce a copious supply of nectar.
• Will bloom more vigorously if plants are divided in spring or fall every 3 to 4 years.
• Needs good air circulation but more resistant to powdery mildew than most beebalm.
• Attractive to hummingbirds. Bees that cannot reach the nectar visit for pollen. The small black bee is a specialist
pollinator. Butterflies attracted include the Karner blue and the gray hairstreak butterfly. Moths attracted
include the hermit sphinx, southern purple mint, and hummingbird moth. The seeds attract birds.
Butterfly Milkweed Asclepias tuberosa
• 2-feet high. Distinctive yellow to red-orange flowers that can provide bloom
from May to September.
• Late to emerge in spring. Mark locations in fall to avoid digging the plant up in
spring.
• Do not pamper. Successful growth requires duplicating the harsh ecosystem
where this plant thrives.
• May flower the first year and can live for decades.
• Deep tuberous taproot does not transplant well, leave undisturbed once
established.
• Mulching to prevent frost heave may be desirable the first year.
• Two-inch long taproot sections can be planted to produce more plants.
• A very showy native flower. As it matures, additional stems and larger flowers create a shrub-like appearance.
• The long-lasting blooms have no fragrance, appear early to mid-summer, and sometimes bloom a second time.
• Does not have milky-sapped stems like many milkweeds.
• Needs drier, well-drained soils, crown rot possible in wet, poorly drained soils.
• All sorts of insects love it. Can attract aphids that secrete honeydew which leads to black, sooty mold. Pesticide
use will also kill the Monarch caterpillars and butterflies that depend on milkweed foliage and blooms.
• Nice cut flower. Seed pods used in floral arrangements.
• Hosts the monarch butterfly. Attracts hummingbirds and over a dozen butterfly species including the northern
metalmark, coral hairstreak, Edward’s hairstreak, and gorgone checkerspot.
Button Blazing Star Rough Blazing Star Liatris aspera
• A tough, durable plant 3-feet tall with rough, lance-shaped leaves and densely flowered purple spikes.
• Flowers resembling buttons bloom from as early as July and as late as October.
• Blazing star develops slowly aboveground in its first year: expec few leaves and no flowers initially.
• A monarch magnet, one of the best sources for nectar for migrating monarch butterflies in fall.
• Spikes will flop if soil is too rich. Tie vertical stem to a stake if this happens.
• Flowers can be used fresh cut or dried in arrangements.
PAGE 4
• Native Americans dug and stored the corms (vertical,
fleshy, underground stem used by plants for food
storage) for winter food use.
• Rabbits and deer eat the foliage and stems.
• Small rodents enjoy the corms and may limit the plant
life; leave the blazing star seed heads in the garden to
encourage new seedlings.
• The dormant tubers can be planted like bulbs.
• A tea made from the leaves was used to treat snakebite and
stomach aches.
• An important plant in late summer/early fall for bumble bees, butterflies,
hummingbirds.
• Intolerant of black walnuts and wet soils in winter.
• Attracts hummingbirds and hummingbird moths as well as butterflies,
skippers, and long-tongued bees. Goldfinches and juncos seek the seeds.
Foxglove Beardtongue Foxglove Penstemon Penstemon digitalis
• 4-feet tall, with white, two-lipped, tubular flowers that bloom in
June and July -but not the first year after planting.
• Native to Jackson and Jo Daviess counties. Rhizomatous roots can
form new plantlets around the base.
• Plants spread slowly to form dense clumps that can be divided. It
also self-seeds.
• Taller than most of the other pocket prairie plants.
• White flowers blend with almost anything and are especially nice
massed.
• Foliage is “uninteresting” but somewhat evergreen: plant later-blooming
plants around it.
• Tolerates most soil conditions. Root rot can occur in wet, poorly drained
soils.
• The tubular flowers attract hummingbirds, sphinx moths, and long-tongued
bees including honeybees, bumblebees, anthophorine bees, miner bees,
mason bees, large leaf-cutting bees, and halictid bees.
• Hosts the Baltimore checkerspot butterfly and the chalcedony midget moth.
Hoary Vervain Verbena stricta
• The long, strong, narrow purple spikes flower from the bottom up for 4 to 6 weeks during July and August.
• An excellent, drought resistant nectar source with multiple stems that tends to grow in clumps.
• Hoary vervain provide a soft vertical accent when planted with grasses or used as a cut flower.
• An unwelcome weed in some pastures since livestock avoid the hairy, bitter leaves.
• Considered a short-lived (around 5 years) and less competitive prairie perennial; encourage self-seeding
• An herbal supplement used by some used by some for aches and pains.
• Host plant for numerous pollinators such as the common buckeye caterpillar, carpenter and miner bees,
bumblebees, and moths.
PAGE 5
Lead Plant Amorpha canescens
• Showy, tightly packed, small purple flowers are clustered on a spike.
• A semi-woody plant, often listed as a shrub, that is a legume from the pea family that fixes nitrogen at its roots.
• Easy to grow, slow to develop to its mature height of 2-3 feet; flowers may take several years to appear.
• The distinctive small-leaved silvery gray leaves and stems, depending on the amount of sunlight, can have a
lead-like appearance. Also, the fine hairs of lead plants fine hairs can give the appearance of being dusted with
white lead.
• Local lore is that lead plant located bedrock crevices where lead could be found buried under deep topsoil.
• Survives fire and grazing due to a tough tap root extending as deep as 15 feet with a 3-foot spread.
• A favorite food of deer; protect young plants from rabbits, especially during the winter.
• For the first year, mulch around each plant during winter and early spring can prevent frost heave breaking off
young roots
• Do not prune the stems back in winter during the first years; wait several years until the plant blooms.
• Pruning mature plants to ground or a foot above ground in late winter promotes new branches that will bloom
later in the year.
• Extremely long-lived and drought resistant; lead plant’s sizable taproot makes it difficult to transplant.
• Plowing farmers called the roots “devil’s shoestrings” due to their size, toughness, and repeated re-sprouting.
Little Bluestem Schizachyrium scoparium
• Found in 45 American states, it was the most abundant grass in the mid-US.
• Does not do well in damp or heavy clay soils.
• Used in landscaping as a 2 to 3-foot-high backdrop or base to show off blooming plants.
• A warm weather grass, the clump-forming foliage does not start to grow much until early summer.
• Some foliage clumps are more blue than others.
• In fertile soils, it can grow tall and “flop” to one side instead of staying vertical. It can make an attractive mass
planting that retains winter interest.
• The foliage turns a distinct reddish brown in fall that persists into winter.
• One of the best of the prairie grasses for remaining visible through winter snows.
• Early spring, before new green growth is visible, is the preferred time to mow down to 4 inches above the
ground and divide clumps, when desired
• Voles and mice may overwinter and gnaw the grass crowns enough to kill the plants. Mow foliage down in fall
after the plants are dormant (brown – no green) if rodents over-winter and do serious crown damage.
• White-haired seed heads grow from the clumps in late summer which attract songbirds in all and winter.
• Caterpillars of skippers, which look like a cross between small butterflies and moths, are hosted by little
bluestem.
• Grasshoppers and other insects feed on little bluestem which also attracts birds that eat insects
Midland Shooting Star Dodecatheon meadia
• Early spring prairie flower that grows to 1-foot tall and blooms April to June.
• The delicate, distinctive flower resembles a shooting star that children find attractive.
• Each plant can eventually have several dozen flowers with wide color variation.
• Foliage disappears as the plant becomes dormant in summer.
• Plant along edges and where taller plants will not overtake them until they begins to go dormant in summer.PAGE 6
• Plant in groups of 3 and do not crowd them.
• Bradbury’s Monarda and Prairie Smoke make good aesthetic
companions and filler when foliage disappears in summer.
• Mark the site after the plants go dormant to avoid digging
them up in late summer or fall.
• Tolerates full sun to full shade in woods and prairies when it
is evenly moist (not wet) in spring.
• Was more common during pioneer settlement. Best
propagated by dividing mature crowns in fall.
• Deer will not always avoid it. Not tolerant of black walnuts.
• They have no nectar, butterflies leave the flowers
disappointed
• An early source of food for queen bumblebees as they come out of hibernation.
• Bumblebees shake pollen out of the narrow tube by vibrating their bodies against it just as they do with prairie
smoke blossoms.
Old Field (Gray) Goldenrod Solidago nemoralis
• Also known as field goldenrod. Grows readily in poor, open soils (old fields) at hot, dry, challenging sites.
• Not as aggressive as most goldenrods, it will stay in a clump and does not spread its seeds widely.
• Goldenrod still is widely and incorrectly associated with the hay fever symptoms largely caused by ragwort
which blooms about the same time as goldenrod.
• The short gray hairs are a distinctive feature
• Blooms almost a month later than most goldenrods and is an important nectar and pollen source for migrating
monarchs and other butterflies.
• Like most goldenrods, the plant hosts and feeds a wide variety and long list of insects.
• In fertile ground it can grow 3 feet or taller. In western states, it may be considered a weed. After being
imported to Germany it has become an invasive plant.
• Rabbits and deer will occasionally browse goldenrods and eat seeds, but they are not a preferred food source.
Pale Purple Coneflower Echinacea pallida
• The single purple flowers of this native appear from May through July on a stem that
approaches 3-feet high.
• The blooms are important for early summer pollinators including bumblebees, the
endangered rusty-patched bumblebee, as well as solitary bees and butterflies.
• Divisions of the fibrous taproot may be less vigorous than the parent. Transplant
seedlings instead.
• Native in the Dubuque area and rare in southern Wisconsin, the Pale Purple Coneflower
does not self-seed as aggressively as the widely planted purple coneflower that is native
further south and east.
• Plants can fail in gardens that are fertilized and given extra water.
• Stem and leaves are not that attractive: use lower growing flowers around it to hide the lower foliage.
• After blooming the rays shrivel to leave a dark, prickly cone of angular gray nutlets.
• Goldfinches feed on the spiky seed heads that remain attractive into winter.PAGE 7
• Native Americans used echinacea root medicinally by chewing or as a tea to treat a wide range of ailments
including cancers, burns, snake and spider bites. Medicinal uses continue today.
• The root has cortisone-like properties and has been used as a nonspecific immune system stimulant.
• Over 22 butterfly species are attracted including red admiral, painted lady, American lady, variegated fritillary,
tiger swallowtail, spicebush swallowtail, giant swallowtail, viceroy, and pearl crescent.
• Caterpillars of the silvery checkerspot butterfly that hatch out late in summer will then over-winter at the base
of the plants. (Delay garden cleanup until spring.)
• The tiny insects it attracts attract hummingbirds. It attracts seed-eating birds such as goldfinches and juncos.
Pasque Flower Anemone patens
• Known as the prairie crocus, flowers can emerge while snow is still on the ground
• Pasqueflower will bloom a few weeks and then produce showy long-tailed seed heads.
• The plant is covered by shiny hairs and needs moisture only when flowering.
• Locate it near an open edge where blooms and seed heads won’t be concealed by taller, bushier plants.
• Use butterfly milkweed as a companion plant since its foliage remains short while the pasqueflower is blooming.
• Deer and rabbits are repelled by the strong blistering agent in the foliage which has been used in folk medicine.
• PLANT WITH CAUTION: If eaten, pasque flowers, like daffodils, can be toxic to pets and children.
• Confusingly also known as Anemone nuttalliana, Pulsatilla patens, Pulsatilla nuttalliana, and P. hirsutissima
• Pasque flower needs an alkaline soil with a pH of 7 to 8.
PAGE 6
Prairie Dropseed Sporobolus heterolepis
• A versatile warm season grass with shaggy mophead foliage up to 2-feet tall
and seed stems that can extend another foot higher.
• Widespread, grows in soil ranging from dry to moist. Vigorous fibrous roots.
• Grows in heavy clays and a wide range of soils, but not found in wet areas.
• Elegant, refined look is used in landscaping rock gardens, mass plantings,
and hot, dry areas.
• Slow-growing and slow to establish but well-behaved. Tolerates burning but
not shading by taller plants.
• Flowers grow on slender arching stalks that rise above the foliage mound in late summer.
• Seed head sometimes described as having a vague scent of fresh popcorn, cilantro, or sunflower seeds.
• Fine-textured leaves turn golden with orange hues in fall fading to bronze in winter.
• Forms an arching mound about 18 inches by 18 inches. Can be divided while dormant. Plant at least 2-feet apart.
• Voles and mice may overwinter and gnaw the grass crowns enough to kill the plants. Mow in fall after the plants
are dormant to discourage over-wintering and damage.
• Usually stays upright all winter. Cut back or burn in early spring before growth begins.
• Base can be a nest site for bees.
Prairie Smoke Geum triflorum (Used only in the 2021 M2M Pocket Prairie Mix)
• The low evergreen leaves stand out as winter snow recedes.
• Early prairie bloomer, pink to red nodding flowers blooms as early as April through June.
• Can fill in space left when shooting star foliage becomes dormant and disappears.
• As the flowers fade the heads elongate to form a plume of wispy, feathery gray tailsPAGE 8
• Has had many medicinal uses including coughs, fevers, eye wash, salve for sores,
rashes, blisters, aching joints, and more.
• Spreads by rhizomes to form an interesting ground cover. Can be shaded out by taller,
more vigorous plants.
• A tough plant that tolerates thin soils but can die out with wet winter soil conditions.
• Tolerates burns but avoid spring fires.
• Important food source for bumblebee queens that have overwintered. Bumblebees are
the main pollinators and use the same buzz-pollination technique on shooting stars.
Small bees, wasps, beetles, and ants will chew small opening at the top of the flower to
get to nectar.
Purple Prairie Clover Dalea purperea
• A tough, low maintenance legume with elegant, fine-textured foliage that rarely blooms the first year.
• The stems look spindly in spring and may be mistakenly weeded out.
• Showy thimble-topped purple flowering heads bloom from the bottom up for 4-6 weeks in mid-summer.
• Mature plants develop multiple stems at the ground with a deep tap root that dislikes disturbance.
• Long-lived, drought and heat resistant; the clumps rarely need thinning.
• The fine, ornamental foliage gives an attractive garden form. Seed heads provide attractive winter interest.
• A good companion plant for little bluestem and prairie dropseed as well as lead plant and butterfly weed.
• Protect from rabbits and deer until established; clover is palatable and high in protein, continued grazing can
prevent long-term establishment.
• Clover nectar and pollen attract a long list of insects: bees, wasps, flies, butterflies, skippers, while another long
list of host insects destructively feed on the leaves and seeds.
Rattlesnake Master Eryngium yuccifolium
• Grows 4-feet tall (may need support) with bristly white flowers that appear in early
summer.
• “The plant you don’t forget.” Used as accent plant on formal settings.
• Sprawls in rich soils or in less than full sun
• Distinctive bluish-green basal leaves up to a foot long resemble yucca leaves and have
prickles on the edges.
• Blooming occurs for about a month until flowers transition to attractive globular seed
clusters.
• Native Americans and early settlers used the root as a diuretic, expectorant and
emetic, and for some liver troubles. Chewing the root induces saliva flow.
• Teas and potions made from this plant reportedly gave results similar to today's
Viagra.
• Deep tap-rooted plant; does not transplant well. Does not tolerate poor drainage.
• Young leaves may need protection from deer and rabbits in spring.
• An important mid-summer plant for bumblebees and butterflies.
• Member of the carrot/parsley family that hosts black swallowtail larvae and small pollinators. Swallowtails
overwinter in the pupae stage and emerge in early spring. A stem-borer moth is also hosted. Butterflies, moths,
skippers, and bees visit for nectar and pollen.PAGE 9
Sky Blue Aster Symphyotrichum oolentangiense
• Three-feet high, this aster can bloom from August through November.
• Flowers have deep blue to lavender petals surrounding a yellow disk that are especially
appealing to pollinators and gardeners.
• Spreads by rhizomes and self-seeding.
• Typical of higher quality natural areas, especially those managed with fire.
• Fertilization can produce top-heavy, floppy plants; stake the stems if needed.
• Adjacent low plants can conceal brown, late-season lower leaves and stems.
• Attracts a wide variety of late summer/ early fall pollinators.
• Important late season nectar sources for migrating butterflies and hummingbirds.
• Like almost all asters, deer and rabbits will seek it out.
• At least 19 butterfly species are attracted to asters. Migrating species such as monarchs depend on aster’s long
and late bloom for stocking up for a long migration. Asters host many butterfly species including the asteroid,
silvery checkerspot, and the diminutive, darting pearl crescent (which is almost guaranteed to show up).
• Spring cleanup should allow for larvae of the silvery checkerspot and pearl crescent that overwinter on asters.
• Asters host the Isabella tiger moth which we know for its distinctive wooly bear caterpillar
Swamp (Rose) Milkweed Asclepias incarnata
• The flat rose/rose-purple flowers form on top of 3-foot stems to provide easy and popular pollinator access.
• Swamp milkweed height is highly variable ranging from 2 to 6 feet.
• The late summer bloom can extend over a month.
• Swamp milkweed thrives in moist soil and even withstands flooding – conditions where butterfly milkweed,
which thrives in dry soil) will struggle.
• Dubuque-area gardeners report swamp milkweed, once established, does well with normal Dubuque growing
season rainfall without supplemental watering.
• In one area, swamp milkweed drew more monarch butterflies than nearby butterfly and field milkweed.
• Swamp milkweed tends to clump and self-seeds widely.
• Deer and rabbits avoid the bitter, toxic foliage.
• A wide range of insect life (bees, moths, skippers, etc) along with hummingbirds seeks swamp milkweed nectar.
• Besides monarch caterpillars, beetles, bugs, and aphids feed on the leaves.
Resources
Pictures used with permission of Harold Bright, Ion Exchange, Inc. (Harpers Ferry, IA).
Nearby sources of local native seeds and plants: Ion Exchange, Inc. (Harpers Ferry, IA ), Prairie Moon Nursery
(Winona, MN), Prairie Nursery (Westfield, WI), and Taylor Creek Restoration Nurseries (Brodhead, WI).
Suggested Plant Searches and Books
• Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder
• Illinois Wildflowers and Minnesota Wildflowers
• Extension Services of Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota
• The Midwestern Native Garden, Charlotte Adelman and Bernard L. Schwartz, Ohio University Press, 2011,
ISBN 978-0-8214-1937-3
• Growing Native, Lynn M. Steiner, Quarto Publishing Group, 2016, ISBN 978-1-59186-655-8
• Native Plant Primer, Alan Branhagen, Timber Press, 2020, ISBN 978-1-60469-992-0You can also read
