Transform Your Yard with Local Native Plants

Whether we grew up in farming households, helped in the suburban yard, or lived in a concrete jungle, many of us started gardening as adults with a simple approach. We grabbed a few landscape plants from a big box store. Later, we found ourselves immersed in native plant sales at our local arboretum or botanical garden. Our mindset shifted from merely sprucing up the yard to designing a space that maximizes support of local biodiversity and habitat. We shifted in preference from turf grass to sedges and from tea roses to rose mallow.

While I grew up in a rural area, it was not until doing stream survey work as an undergrad that I was introduced to the concept of native plants and their importance to riparian areas and ecological restoration. As I learned more, I found that hikes in the woods became so much richer as I was able to observe and recognize different plant species. My concept of beauty has changed. I’ve always loved wild spaces, but now I see the functions of these spaces and appreciate that nature, while seeming chaotic, is quite organized and efficient. Over the past 20 years, my appreciation of the work many people are doing to educate the public about native and invasive species has grown. Knowledge enhances our appreciation of nature. It changes our relationship to it. Hopefully, this compels us to participate as careful stewards of the land in our purview.

I have decided to start a running list of the native plants in my yard so that others on a similar trajectory can pop over here and see what I’ve tried. I may eventually add pictures and commentary. My current plantings are not strictly native species, so this list does not include everything in our one-third acre. As I fill in gaps and replace old plants, I’m choosing local or regional natives apart from fruits and vegetables for our family consumption. I’m doing this not out of elitism but out of serious concern over the die-off of insects and birds, knowing that one yard isn’t much, but it is a link in the patchwork of scarce resources.

As I am not a botanist, if you see something that does not belong on the list, please let me know!

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Common name	Scientific name & notes	Images
Common Yarrow	Achillea millefolium
Sweetflag	Acorus calamus
Red buckeye	Aesculus pavia
Maidenhair fern	Adiantum pedatum
Heart-leaf ginger	Asarum virginicum
Common Milkweed	Asclepias syriaca
Butterfly weed	Asclepias tuberosa This was easy to start from seed in a tray and then transplant.
American papaw	Asimina triloba
Fanal Astilbe	Astilbe x arendsii ‘Fanal’
Crossvine	Bignonia capreolata
Carolina allspice	Calycanthus floridus
American beautyberry	Callicarpa americana
Cherokee Carex	Carex cherokenensis
Gray’s sedge	Carex grayi
Buttonbush	Cephalanthus occidentalis
Eastern redbud	Cercis canadensis
Sensitive partridge pea	Chamaecrista nictitans This popped up as a volunteer in my vegetable garden.
River Oats	Chasmanthium latifolium
Hot lips’ Turtlehead	Chelone lyonii
White fringetree	Chionanthus virginicus
Coastal pepperbush	Clethra alnifolia
Flowering dogwood*	Cornus florida I’ve failed every time I’ve planted a dogwood. The only ones thriving were already on the property.
American Hazelnut	Corylus americana These started producing in about 2-3 years from transplant.
Bleeding heart**	Dicentra exima
Purple Coneflower	Echinacea purpurea
Amazon Sword	Echinodorus bracteatus ‘Lantau Lady’ Spreads vigorously and easy to propagate.
Waterweed	Elodea canadensis
Azure fairy	Erigeron ‘azurfee’
Rattlesnake Master	Eryngium yuccifolium This did not spread the first year and then spread by seeds the next.
American Boneset***	Eupatorium perfoliatum
Joe pye weed	Eutrochium fistulosum
Horsetail	Equisetum arvense I keep this in a pot in the pond to prevent aggressive spreading.
Dwarf Fothergilla	Fothergilla gardenii
Carolina jessamine	Gelsemium sempervirens
Witch hazel***	Hamamelis virginiana
Scarlet Rosemallow	Hibiscus coccineus
Bushy St. John’s wort***	Hypericum densiflorum This has been growing well under the shade of the fig tree, but the chickens buried it, and it seems to be gone now.
Possumhaw	Ilex decidua
American holly*	Ilex opaca This one may be a hybrid as it was a landscape planting by the house. It buckled in half during an ice storm and managed to grow back from the stump in a few years.
Winterberry	Ilex verticillata This one has been challenging to get to thrive in my yard. The dry spells in summer is hard on them.
Virginia Sweetspire	Itea virginica
Eastern red cedar*	Juniperus virginiana These pop up in the shady, disturbed areas of the yard.
Marsh mallow	Kosteletzkya pentacarpos
Spicebush	Lindera benzoin This has now starting self-seeding
Cardinal flower	Lobelia cardinalis
Trumpet honeysuckle	Lonicera sempervirens
Southern Magnolia*	Magnolia grandiflora	Southern Magnolia bark
Bee Balm	Monarda didyma
American lotus	Nelumbo lutea
Sensitive fern**	Onoclea sensibilis
Sourwood	Oxydendrum arboreum
Arrow arum	Peltandra virginica
Smooth solomon’s seal**	Polygonatum biflorum
Variegated Solomon’s Seal	Polygonatum biflorum ‘Variegatum’
Pickerel weed	Pontederia cordata
Chickasaw plum	Prunus angustifolia
Black cherry*	Prunus serotina
Eastern Smooth Beardtongue	Penstemon laevigotus
Garden phlox	Phlox paniculata
Blunt mountain mint**	Pycnanthemum muticum
White Oak*	Quercus alba
Southern Red Oak*	Quercus falcata – up for debate
Laurel Oak*	Quercus laurifolia
Water Oak*	Quercus nigra L.
Willow Oak*	Quercus phellos
Aromatic sumac	Rhus aromatica
Black eyed Susan	Rudbeckia hirta
Cutleaf coneflower	Rudbeckia laciniata
Sweet coneflower	Rudbeckia subtomentosa
Broadleaf arrowhead	Sagittaria latifolia
Elderberry ‘York’	Sambucus canadensis
Lizard’s tail	Saururus cernuus
‘Suwanee’ Blue eyed grass	Sisyrichium nashil ‘Suwanee’
Goldenrod	Solidago caesia
Indian Pink	Spigelia marilandica
Stokes’ aster	Stokesia laevis
Wood poppy	Stylophorum diphyllum
Aromatic aster	Symphyotrichum oblongifolium
Hardy Cana	Thalia dealbata
Foamflower**	Tiarella cordifolia
Trillium ***	Trillium grandiflorum
Toadshade trillium	Trillium sessile
American Elm*	Ulmus americana
New York ironweed***	Vernonia noveboracensis
Southern arrowwood	Viburnum dentatum

 

Source for more information on NC native plants: https://ncwildflower.org/

Why native plants?
https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/Native_Plant_Materials/Native_Gardening/index.shtml

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