Photo: Kayla Kidwell-Snider
Little bluestem Schizachyrium scoparium
Campus location: Rain Garden & Rain Garden
A small, non-spreading, clump-forming grass with blue-green leaves that turn reddish orange in the fall. Fluffy silver seed heads are ornamental through winter.
Culture:
Grow in dry to average soil in full sun.Tolerates heat and humidity easily.
Use:
This is an excellent short grass for the garden. Use freely in sunny borders, native plant gardens, naturalized areas, prairies and meadows. Excellent in massed plantings. Provides food and cover for wildlife.
Height:
24 to 36 inches
Spread:
12 to inches
Color:
Blue Green
Fall color: Red-Orange
USDA Hardiness Zone:
5 - 9
Good Companion Plants
- Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)
- Pale Purple Coneflower (Echinacea pallida)
- Prairie Blazing Star (Liatris pycnostachya)
- Stiff Goldenrod (Solidago rigida)
- Showy Goldenrod (Solidago speciosa)
Characteristics and Attributes
Sun Exposure:
Full Sun
Season of Interest:
Mid (May - June)
Late (July - frost)
Winter (Nov - Mar)
Soil Moisture:
Average
Wildlife Benefit:
Cover
Food/Small Animals
Special Uses:
Fresh Cut Flower
Dried Flower
Critter Resistance:
Deer Resistant
Source: Grow Native!
Uses
Pasture/range/hayland: Little bluestem is a fair forage species and is readily grazed by livestock, deer, and elk. It is also suitable for hay.
Erosion control: Because of its growth habit and adaptability to a wide range of soil conditions, little bluestem is useful as a component of revegetation mixes. It is especially well-suited for use on thin upland range sites.
Wildlife: Little bluestem seed is eaten by songbirds and upland gamebirds. The plant provides cover for ground birds and small mammals.
Landscaping: With its blue-green leaves during the growing season and attractive rusty color with white fluffy seedheads in the fall, little bluestem is useful in ornamental plantings.
Adaptation and Distribution
Little bluestem is one of the most widely distributed native grasses in North America. It will grow on a wide variety of soils but is very well adapted to well-drained, medium to dry, infertile soils. The plant has excellent drought and fair shade tolerance, and fair to poor flood tolerance. It grows preferentially on sites with pH 7.0 and slightly higher.
Source: USDA
Photo: Kayla Kidwell-Snider
Butterfly milkweed Asclepias tuberosa
Campus location: Butterfly Garden & Rain Garden
Lots of bright orange, flat-topped flower clusters open in early June. Plants bloom for many weeks. Host plant for the monarch butterfly and a great nectar source for many other butterflies and pollinators.
Culture:
Grow in full sun in well-drained soil. Plants have deep tap roots and are slow to emerge in the spring.
Use:
An excellent garden plant and a great addition to a native plant garden, naturalized area, prairie or wildflower meadow. An essential plant for attracting butterflies.
Height:
18 to 24 inches
Spread:
24 to inches
Color:
Red Orange
USDA Hardiness Zone:
4 - 9
Good Companion Plants
- Blue False Indigo (Baptisia australis)
- Pale Purple Coneflower (Echinacea pallida)
- Lead Plant (Amorpha canescens)
- Lanceleaf Coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata)
- Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium)
- Blue False Indigo (Baptisia australis)
Characteristics and Attributes
Sun Exposure:
Full Sun
Season of Interest:
Mid (May - June)
Late (July - frost)
Soil Moisture:
Average
Wildlife Benefit:
Butterfly Host
Butterfly Nectar
Special Uses:
Fragrant
Fresh Cut Flower
Dried Flower
Nature Attracting:
Butterfly
Hummingbird
Beneficial Insects
Critter Resistance:
Deer Resistant
Source: Grow Native!
Uses
Warning: Milkweed may be toxic when taken internally, without sufficient preparation.
Ethnobotanic: Milkweed has been used for fiber, food, and medicine by people all over the United States and southern Canada. Fibers from the stems of milkweed have been identified in prehistoric textiles in the Pueblo region. Tewa-speaking people of the Rio Grande still make string and rope from these fibers. At the Zuni Pueblo, the silky seed fibers are spun on a hand-held wooden spindle and made into yarn and woven into fabric, especially for dancers. Pueblo people ate green milkweed pods and uncooked roots from one of the species that forms fleshy tubers underground.
Milkweeds supply tough fibers for making cords and ropes, and for weaving a coarse cloth. Milkweed stems are collected after the stalks senesce in late fall to early winter. The dried stalks are split open to release the fibers. Milkweed fibers are sometimes mixed with fibers of Indian-hemp (Apocynum cannabinum). The bark is removed and the fibers released by first rubbing between the hands and then drawing the fibers over a hard surface. The cord is
formed by twisting the fiber opposite each other and twining them together. Often this is accomplished by rolling the fibers on the thigh, while twisting them together.
The young shoots, stems, flower buds, immature fruits, and roots of butterfly milkweed were boiled and eaten as a vegetable by various indigenous groups of eastern and mid-western America.
Butterfly milkweed has many medicinal uses. The Omahas and Poncas ate the raw root of the butterfly milkweed for bronchial and pulmonary troubles. Butterfly milkweed root was also chewed and placed on wounds, or dried, pulverized, and blown into wounds. The Omaha tribe used butterfly milkweed medicine for rites belonging to the Shell Society. The Dakotas used the butterfly milkweed as an emetic. The Menominis considered the butterfly milkweed, which they called the “deceiver,” one of their most important medicines.
Generalized medicinal uses for milkweed species include 1) its use in a salve for scrofulous swelling, 2) as a diarrhea medicine, 3) drunk by mothers unable to produce milk, 4) medicine for snow blindness and other forms of blindness, 5) relief of sore throat, 6) applied chewed root for swelling and rashes, 7) to expel tapeworm, 8) to treat colic, 9) to act as contraceptives, and 10) to cure snakebite.
European Americans used Asclepias tuberosa, called “pleurisy root”, to relieve inflammation of the lining of the lungs and thorax, and to relieve bronchial and pulmonary trouble. Pleurisy root is a stimulant to the vagus nerve, producing perspiration, expectoration, and bronchial dilation. As its name signifies, it is useful for pleurisy and mild pulmonary edema, increasing fluid circulation, cilia function, and lymphatic drainage. The root of the butterfly milkweed, was officially listed in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia from 1820 to 1905 and in the National Formulary from 1916 to 1936.
Milkweed species, as a group, are known to contain cardiac glycosides that are poisonous both to humans and to livestock, as well as other substances that may account for their medicinal effect. Resinoids, glycosides, and a small amount of alkaloids are present in all parts of the plant. Symptoms of poisoning by the cardiac glycosides include dullness, weakness, bloating, inability to stand or walk, high body temperature, rapid and weak pulse, difficulty breathing, dilated pupils, spasms, and coma.
The cardiac glycoside in milkweed has also been useful as a chemical defense for monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus). Chemicals from the milkweed plant make the monarch caterpillar’s flesh distasteful to most predators. Monarch butterflies are specific to milkweed plants. This is the only type of plant on which the eggs are laid and the larvae will feed and mature into a chrysalis. Eggs are laid on the underside of young healthy leaves. Monarch, Queen, and Viceroy butterflies are Müllerian mimics, all are toxic, and have co-evolved similar warning patterns to avoid predation.
Wildlife: Milkweed species are attractive to many insect species, including the large milkweed bug, common milkweed bug, red milkweed beetle, blue milkweed beetle, and bees. Accordingly, this is a wonderful horticultural plant for landscaping to attract butterflies (particularly monarchs), whose numbers are declining and migratory routes changing due to lack of appropriate habitat. Butterfly milkweed also has strikingly beautiful flowers.
Caution: At one time, milkweed was classified as a noxious weed due to reported toxic effects on livestock, and efforts were made to eradicate it. Milkweeds are thought to be poisonous to cows and sheep. Milkweed also can have invasive characteristics in disturbed areas.
Distribution
Milkweeds grow in clumps beside roadways, on abandoned farmlands, and in other open areas throughout the United States. Butterfly milkweed grows on sandy, loamy, or rocky limestone soils of prairies, open woodlands, roadsides, and disturbed areas similar to other milkweed species.
Source: USDA
Photo: Kayla Kidwell-Snider
Purple coneflower Echinacea purpurea
Campus location: Butterfly Garden
Lots of rosy purple flowers with non-drooping petals around a brown cone-shaped seed head.
Culture:
Very easy to grow. Adapts to many soil types and grows well in full sun or light shade. Remove seed heads after flowering if self-seeding is not desired.
Use:
Plant in the border, native plant garden, naturalized area, prairie or wildflower meadow. Good cut flower and excellent nectar source for butterflies. Songbirds feed on the dry seed.
Height:
24 to 36 inches
Spread:
18 to 24 inches
Color:
Purple
USDA Hardiness Zone:
3 - 8
Good Companion Plants
- Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)
- Yellow Coneflower (Echinacea paradoxa)
- Gray-head Coneflower (Ratibida pinnata)
- Stiff Goldenrod (Solidago rigida)
Characteristics and Attributes
Sun Exposure:
Full Sun
Medium Sun/Average Shade
Season of Interest:
Mid (May - June)
Late (July - frost)
Soil Moisture:
Average
Moderate
Wildlife Benefit:
Food/Birds
Butterfly Nectar
Special Uses:
Fresh Cut Flower
Dried Flower
Nature Attracting:
Butterfly
Hummingbird
Songbird
Source: Grow Native!
Uses
Ethnobotanic: The purple coneflower, Echinacea angustifolia, was and still is the most widely used medicinal plant of the Plains Indians (Kindscher 1992). It was used as a painkiller and for a variety of ailments, including toothache, coughs, colds, sore throats, and snake bite. Echinacea angustifolia was used as an analgesic by the Cheyenne, the Dakota, the Fox, and the Winnebago (Moerman 1986). Purple coneflower is used as an antidote for poisonous conditions, snake bite, and other poisonous bites by the Winnebago, Ponca, Pawnee, Omaha, Dakota, and by most Montana tribes (Gilmore 1977). The root was used to relieve toothache by the Dakota, Omaha, Pawnee, Ponca, Teton Sioux, and Winnebago (Moerman 1986). The Cheyenne chewed the root to stimulate the flow of saliva, which was especially useful for Sun Dance participants as a thirst preventative (Hart 1981). A wash was used as a dressing for burns to relieve pain by the Dakota, Winnebago, Omaha, Pawnee, and Ponca.
The Fox used purple coneflower as an anti-convulsive and gastro-intestinal aid. The Kiowa chewed coneflower root for coughs and sore throats. The Omaha and Pawnee used a smoke treatment as a remedy for headache. A poultice of smashed roots were applied as an anesthetic to arms and hands by the Omaha, and a poultice was applied to enlarged glands as a treatment for diseases such as mumps by the Pawnee, Ponca, Dakota, and Winnebago. Purple coneflower was used to increase endurance in the sweat lodge ceremony by the Dakota, Pawnee, Ponca, and Winnebago. The Lakota ate the root and green fruit when they were thirsty or perspiring (Rogers 1980, Munson 1981). The Teton Sioux used coneflower to cure tonsillitis. The Omaha and Ponca used the plant as eyewash. When the roots were mixed with blazing star (Mentzelia laevicaulis) and boiled, the resulting tea was drunk for smallpox (Kindscher 1992). Purple coneflower roots mixed with puffball (Lycoperdon species) spores and skunk oil were used in the treatment of boils. The smoke from burning purple coneflower was used as a treatment for distemper in horses by the Ponca, Dakota, Pawnee, and Winnebago.
The Omaha, the Lakota, and the Ponca sometimes used the seed heads to comb their hair (Kindscher 1992). Purple coneflower stalks were used in play by Pawnee children. They would whirl two flower stalks one around the other, the two stalk touching by the flower heads.
The purple coneflower was the only native prairie plant popularized as a medicine by folk practitioners and doctors, and was used extensively as a folk remedy (Kindscher 1992). The use of the purple coneflower root was used by early settlers in Oklahoma as an aid in nearly every kind of sickness. If a cow or a horse did not eat well, people administered Echinacea in its feed.
Echinacea is widely used as an herbal remedy today, primarily as an immuno-stimulant. Echinacea angustifolia root was found to possess mild antibiotic activity against Streptococcus and Staphyloccus aureus (Stoll et al. 1950). A pentane-oil extracted from the root was found to be inhibitory to Walker carcinosarcoma 256 and P-388 lymphocytic leukemia (Voaden and Jacobson 1972). Italian investigators found the wound-healing effects of Echinacea to be attributable to echinacin B (Bonadea et al. 1971). Perhaps the most important finding so far is the discovery of large, highly active polysaccharide molecules in E. angustifolia that possess immunostimulatory properties (Wagner and Proksch 1985, Wagner et al. 1985). Stimulation of the immune system appears to be strongly influenced by dose level. Recent pharmacological studies indicate that a 10-mg/kg daily dose of the polysaccharide over a ten-day period is effective as an immuno-stimulant. Increases in the daily dosage beyond this level, however, resulted in “markedly decreased pharmacological activity” (Wagner and Proksch 1985, Wagner et al. 1985). Other research has shown that the purple coneflower produces an anti-inflammatory effect and has therapeutic value in urology, gynecology, internal medicine, and dermatology (Wagner and Proksch 1985).
Echinacea angustifolia also contains chemical compounds that are insecticidal. One such compound is toxic to mosquitoes and houseflies; another substance, echinolone, disrupts insect development (Hartzell 1947, Jacobson 1954, Voaden and Jacobson 1972). Researchers in the Horticulture Department of South Dakota State University are currently attempting to identify the Echinacea angustifolia germplasm containing the highest level of echinolone. It will be used in manufacturing and insecticide for sunflower crops (Foster 1991).
Ornamental: The purple coneflower is often grown simply for its ornamental value, especially for its showy flowers. The best possibility for obtaining a new cultivar is in the hybrids between Echinacea purpurea and Echinacea angustifolia var. angustifolia, whose progeny are compact, rounded, and bushy plants about two feet in diameter (McGregor 1968).
Establishment
Native Echinacea species are dwindling in the wild from loss of habitat and over-harvesting. Echinacea angustifolia is threatened on one hand by conversion of native habitat, and on the other hand by heavy harvesting to serve the herbal pharmaceutical industry. It takes three to four years for roots to reach harvestable size (Foster 1991). Yields for cultivated, dried roots of three-year-old Echinacea purpurea grown at Trout Lake, Washington, were 131 kg/ha (1,200 lbs/acre) (Foster 1991). According to Richo Cech (1995), a mature two-year old E. purpurea plant yields 2.25 pounds of fresh flowering aerial portions and 0.5 pounds of fresh root per plant. Yield for the purple coneflower is not available, but probably would be less because the plant is smaller.
Source: USDA
