In nature, certain species are found growing together and they form a specific community called a “plant community”. Native plants always grow in association with other native plants to create plant communities that are essentially associations of indigenous species that have evolved over thousands of years and adapted to the specific geography, hydrology and climate of a particular area. The resulting “communities” are really groups of plants that exist together because of the given conditions.
We can use these native plant communities as a prescription from nature in designing our wildflower gardens or landscapes. There are four broad categories of native comprar grama communities here in the Midwest and hundreds of sub categories as we break each of them down into more specific site conditions. It is important to recognize which one of the four categories you would like to create or reconstruct. The four major plant communities of the Midwest are:
Prairies
Savannas
Wetlands
Woodlands
In this article, we are only going to discuss the Prairie sub communities.
Within each of these categories we narrow down our site conditions and begin our design of what native species of wildflowers, grasses and sedges will work best for our site. For instance, if we have an open area that gets full sunlight, we have a perfect opportunity to create a “Prairie”. Within the Prairie Community, we can further break down our site conditions to reflect:
Wet Prairie
Wet-Mesic Prairie
Mesic Prairie
Dry-Mesic Prairie
Dry Prairie
Now this may sound too complicated for the normal gardener but it really isn’t. Here are a few tips to allow you to identify where your site fits in. First of all let’s talk about your soil. You may say that you don’t know anything about soils and that’s o.k. You can still come close to what your soil is like by asking yourself the following questions:
1. When you walk across your site with tennis shoes on, do your feet get wet throughout the growing season? If so, you can bet this is a site for a Wet Prairie Plant Community.
2. Is the ground soggy at times but eventually dries out and then becomes soggy again? This could be a good place to establish your Wet-Mesic Plant Community.
3. Would your site be a good place for a vegetable garden, not too wet, not too dry with fertile rich soil? Here I would select a Mesic-Prairie Plant Community.
4. If you think your site is a little bit on the dry side but not extremely dry, you would choose a Dry-Mesic Plant Community.
5. If your site is really dry and maybe has no topsoil, maybe rocky or sandy I would choose a Dry Prairie Plant Community.
Now, after you have decided which plant community you want to create, here are some examples of wildflowers and grasses to consider for each community:
1. Wet-Prairie Plant Community
Swamp Milkweed
Swamp Aster
Turtlehead
Boneset
Blue Flag Iris
Marsh Blazingstar
Great Blue Lobelia
Monkey Flower
Mountain Mint
Buttonbush
Sneezeweed
Sweet Black-eyed Susan
Ironweed
Joe Pye Weed
Riddell’s Goldenrod
Blue Vervain
Mana Grasses
Wool Grass
Dark Green Bulrush
Bottlebrush Sedge
2. Wet-Mesic Plant Community
Canada Anemone
Sneezeweed
Boneset
Great St. John’s Wort
Wild Quinine
Nodding Onion
Great Blue Lobelia
Cardinal Flower
Sawtooth Sunflower
Blue Flag Iris
Blue Vervain
Mountain Mint
Swamp Milkweed
Prairie Cordgrass
Fox Sedge
Big Bluestem
New England Aster
Prairie Blazingstar
Marsh Blazingstar
3. Mesic Plant Community
Anise Hyssop
New England Aster
Partridge Pea
Cream Gentian
Prairie Blazingstar
Foxglove Beardtongue
Wild Senna
Foxglove Beardtongue
Yellow Coneflower
Compass Plant
Pale Purple Coneflower
Purple Coneflower
Ox-eye Sunflower
White Prairie Clover
Purple Prairie Clover
Black-eyed Susan
Butterfly Milkweed
Canada Milkvetch
Prairie Coreopsis
Sweet Black-eyed Susan
Smooth Blue Aster
Golden Alexanders
Rattlesnake Master
Big Bluestem
Indiangrass
Little Bluestem
Prairie Dropseed
Canada Wild Rye
4. Dry-Mesic Prairie Plant Community
Anise Hyssop
Sky Blue Aster
Smooth Blue Aster
Showy Goldenrod
White Prairie Clover
Purple Prairie Clover
Black-eyed Susan
Stiff Goldenrod
Prairie Alum Root
Wild Bergamot
Butterfly Milkweed
Ohio Spiderwort
Pale Purple Coneflower
Purple Coneflower
Yellow Coneflower
Leadplant
Partridge Pea
Little Bluestem
Sideoats Grama
Rough Dropseed
Canada Wild Rye
5. Dry Prairie Plant Community
Butterfly Milkweed
Sky Blue Aster
Silky Aster
Cream Wild Indigo
Partridge Pea
Flowering Spurge
Showy Sunflower
Old Field Goldenrod
Alumroot
Rough Blazing Star
Wild Lupine
Spotted Bee Balm
Large-flowered Beardtongue
Purple Prairie Clover
Ohio Spiderwort
Hoary Vervain
Lead Plant
Wild Senna
Little Bluestem
Side-oats Grama
Sand Love Grass
June Grass
Blue Grama
Remember, nature has these self-made recipes for your wildflower gardens and reconstuction areas.