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Native Plants

A hibiscus bee (Ptilothrix bombiformis) visiting a crimsoneyed rosemallow (Hibiscus moscheutos) flower

Crimsoneyed Rosemallow: Your New Favorite Native Plant?

If you’re based in the eastern United States and you want a garden that hums with life in late summer, consider planting this native hibiscus. This dramatic perennial combines huge tropical-looking flowers with real ecological value.

A herd of cattle grazing in a prairie. Inset photos highlight the wildflowers amongst the grasses, and the bees and butterflies that are feeding on these flowers.

A Feast for All: Rangeland Wildflowers Feed Livestock and Pollinators

There is a lot more to the Great Plains (and livestock diets) than just grass! Meet some of the native wildflowers that benefit everyone "out on the range".

An Aphaenogaster ant grabbing a large seed to carry back to its nest. They are a reddish-copper color, with a narrow constriction between their thorax and abdomen, and two spines on the back of the thorax.

Myrmecochory: How Ants Shape Plant Communities

Birds aren’t the only animals that help move seeds to new places. Julie Michaelson shares how many plants actually have a secret seed-carrying partnership with ants!

Several flowering perennial plants along the edge of a sidewalk.

They Go with Everything: Even a Small Patch of Native Wildflowers Makes a Difference

Jennifer Hopwood shares how adding even a few plants is the perfect complement to the other habitat features of your yard, garden, or balcony.

Several cows grazing in a field. Instead of introduced grasses, this field is full of native prairie plants

Planting Native Prairies Makes for Grazing Pastures that Support Both Cows and Pollinators

Micah Kloppenburg shares his ruminations from a small farm in Wisconsin experimenting with conservation-forward practices

Monarch drinking nectar from purple coneflower

What is a Monarch’s Favorite Nectar Plant? Scientists are Seeking Your Observations

Xerces scientists are seeking your observations to learn more about adult monarch nectar plant preferences. Our revised system for this community science opportunity has made it easier than ever to submit data about monarch butterflies and the flowers they are nectaring from.

Insects Are a Lot Like Us

Like us, insects are parents, siblings, homemakers, farmers, community members, and innovators. Like us, they can be resourceful, insightful, decisive, and prone to copy their peers. As we continue to energize more people to act on behalf of insects, these similarities matter. The stories and struggles of insects can help us to recognize their inherent value, regardless of their relationship to us.

A monarch butterfly drinks nectar from a purple coneflower in the middle of a field of wildflowers. The monarch is orange-brown with black markings. The coneflowers have a reddish-brown raised dome in the center that is surrounded by drooping purple petals. The other flowers in the meadow are yellow and pink, and beyond is wall of green trees that forms the edge of a woodland.

For Wildlife and Humans, Native Plants Are a Key to Climate Resilience

In our work, we regularly put an emphasis on the importance of using native plants when creating habitat, whether it’s a new prairie, a farm hedgerow, a meadow in a park, or a flower border in your own backyard. Pollinators are often the principal interest for these types of projects, but the benefits of using native plants go far beyond, including, potentially, into a more climate-resilient future for people and wildlife.

Man poses with California Habitat Kit plants in truck during pickup. Credit: Angela Laws.

Meet the Partners Saving Pollinators with Xerces’ California Habitat Kits

Over the past three years, Xerces’ California Habitat Kit program has given away over 105,000 plants to partners all across California who are interested in creating habitat for monarchs and other pollinators. We’ve been able to work with some really great people as part of this program who have helped to create habitat in a variety of landscapes.

An area of grassland has been set on fire on purpose. Brown smoke rises into the blue sky from the orange flames that mark the division between the burned and unburned grassland. The burned area to the left is black, the unburned are to the right is green with tall brown stems. A fire manager wearing yellow cloths and a blue helmet is walking along the line of fire.

Burning the Land

Fire has been used to manage prairies for centuries, and remains an important tool for grassland managers to reduce woody plant encroachment and increase flower production of key nectar and pollen sources. However, burning entire landscapes is problematic for pollinators, and fire must be used carefully.

A front garden in which flowers have been planted. Small circles of recently dug soil surround each small, green plant. The garden is edged by a wooden fence made of two horizontal rails and widely spaced posts. In the foreground, attached to the fence is a sign. The sign is green, with colorful flowers and an orange butterfly and brown lettering that says “pollinator habitat”.

Santa Fe Pollinator Habitat Kit Program Connects Pollinators and People

In Santa Fe, NM, Xerces is working with local partners to develop a city-wide Pollinator Trail focused on creating connected habitat through neighborhoods that lack greenspaces. In September, after months of planning and preparation, 350 habitat kits were distributed to residents and organizations. When many people come together around a common goal, small efforts can quickly add up to large-scale conservation.

A photo of a desert landscape. In the background, brown hills dotted with green shrbs rise toward the blue sky. In the foreground, flowers are in bloom. A row of low shrubs coverd in white flowers stretches away from the viewer toward a clump of short trees.

Climate News: Nature-Based Climate Solutions Address Climate Change and Support Pollinators

Habitat restoration can contribute to countering climate change. Native trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses increase carbon sequestration, while also providing habitat for butterflies and bees.

In the middle of the photo is the purple flower of a tiny wild pansy. The pansy is growing the decaying stems of bushes that were cut down.

The Return of Wild Pansies at Polk City Cemetery

In Iowa, volunteers are working hard to restore an area of old prairie. They are seeing signs that the grassland is recovering, including the regrowth of pale coneflowers and wild pansies.

A super close-up photo of a bee shows every detail of its body. The bee is dark, almost black, and very shiny, with pale brown hairs on it's head and thorax. Its legs have patches of long, dense hairs in which it can carry pollen.

Wetlands as Pollinator Habitat

A bee that collects floral oils rather than nectar? Yes! The nude yellow loosestrife bee relies on a single species of wetland plant, fringed loosestrife, to supply its nest, demonstrating the importance of protecting, restoring, and managing wetland habitats.

A cluster of pink flowers, each with five petals, offers a place for a small brown, delicately marked butterfly to drink nectar

New in Santa Fe: Pollinator Trail and Habitat Kit Program

Santa Fe, New Mexico, is the home of our pilot Pollinator Trail program, which aims to address habitat loss in urban areas. The project will create connected, climate-resilient pollinator habitat in an urban landscape through the distribution of habitat kits and development of partnerships with local organizations to conduct pollinator conservation outreach.

In the center of a large pink-colored thistle bloom is a black and yellow bumble bee.

Standing Up for Native Thistles

Native thistles are beautiful, important wildflowers and yet, are frequently treated as weeds. In late 2018, we had an opportunity to give native thistles a boost in Iowa by urging changes to state noxious weeds code. Six months later we heard that the weed laws had been rewritten.

The wild pansy is a tiny flower with pale purple petals

Discovery of a Rare Plant Through Remnant Prairie Restoration

Less than one-tenth of a percent of Iowa's native tallgrass prairie remains. The scraps that survive are valuable refuges for less-common plants and deserve thoughtful management.

The white colored yucca moth is dwarfed by the person's thumbnail on which it perches

The Night Shift: Moths as Nocturnal Pollinators

The work of pollination is never over—even after dark! While some flowers close when the sun goes down (the technical term for this is floral nyctinasty), most flowers are still accessible at night. When our day-active (diurnal) pollinators turn in for the evening, nocturnal pollinators such as moths, bats, beetles, and even some species of bees take on the night shift to feast on nectar.

A monarch clings to the trunk of a tree in a dimly-lit landscape.

Thanksgiving Count Shows Western Monarchs Need Our Help More than Ever

The western monarch population remains at a critical level. With some luck and a lot of hard work, we have hope that we can save this incredible migration.

A grassy field ringed by trees bursts with color. It is populated by many different flower species.

Pollinator Conservation Program Digest – December 2019

December's featured staff offer a long-range view of habitat projects, from the planning and seeding stages, to current successes. In each of these stories, the ongoing work and great partnerships required to achieve positive conservation outcomes is apparent. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of these efforts!

A group of smiling people poses with their shovels and other implements by a flowering hedgerow.

Pollinator Conservation Program Digest – February 2019

February’s featured staff member has been working on a hedgerow incorporating diverse native species in North Carolina. Here she reports on its progress and the interesting invertebrates sighted on the plantings!

Orange, white, and black Quino checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas editha quino) sits atop a purple flower with wings spread wide.

National Butterfly Center Gets Reprieve—But Border Wall Will Impact Much More

There are many reasons to oppose the wall along the southern border—including the loss of habitat for some of our smallest and most important animals.

Children tend plantings in a raised bed.

Cedaroak Park Primary School Gardens Offer Learning Opportunities

Jenni Denekas, Xerces' web and communications coordinator, writes, "Being assigned to create an interpretive panel for Cedaroak Park Primary School, where I attended grade school, was a special experience."

Purple asters bloom against a green background.

Fall Garden Tips to Benefit Bumble Bees All Year

The growing season may be winding down, but fall is an important time to create habitat. The work you do now will help support overwintering pollinators and the next generation of bumble bees.

A redbud blooms alongside dogwood trees.

From the Field: Trees for Bees

Our Mid-Atlantic Pollinator Conservation Specialist Kelly Gill visited the Mt. Cuba Center in Hockessin, DE, to tour the gardens and give a talk on the best trees for bees. Kelly shares highlights of this visit and her top picks for spring-blooming trees for bees.

An Indian plantain blooms with small, white flowers in a field.

Weird and Wonderful Plants for Pollinators: Pale Indian Plantain

Pale Indian plantain is a plant with high ambitions—leaping to up to nine feet in height! The unusual flowers are visited by a mix of predatory wasps, which are the plant's primary pollinators and provide some of the best pest control you could ask for.

Weird and Wonderful Plants for Pollinators: Wild Quinine

Also known as wild feverfew, this plant has a long history of medicinal use by Native Americans and the US Army. During World War I, wild quinine was used as a substitute for the bark of the Cinchona tree—as the active ingredient of quinine used to treat malaria.