Native Prairie Plant List

Here is a list of native prairie plants that would be appropriate for most urban gardens in the Minneapolis area. The key is to buy plants that are gathered from local seed sources. You can get a prairie in a can at Menard’s that includes little bluestem, or an aster at Bachman’s, but these plants are from another part of the Midwest and adapted in those particular conditions. If you’re going to “go native” it’s worth the extra effort to purchase from a reputable local grower.

Most plants and grasses will grow to 2-3″ and require full sun:

Flowering Plants

  • Lavender Hyssop Agastache foeniculum
  • Nodding Onion Allium cernuum
  • Butterfly Flower Asclepias tuberosa
  • Sky Blue Aster Aster azureus
  • Canada Milk Vetch Astragalus canadensis
  • White Prairie Clover Dalea candida
  • Purple Prairie Clover Dalea purpurea
  • Pale Purple Coneflower Echinacea pallida
  • Rough Blazingstar Liatris aspera
  • Prairie Blazingstar Liatris pycnostachya
  • Smooth Penstemon Penstemon digitalis
  • Black Eyed Susan Rudbeckia hirta
  • Stiff Goldenrod Solidago rigida
  • Showy Goldenrod Solidago speciosa
  • Ohio Spiderwort Tradescantia ohiensis

Grasses

  • Sideoats Grama Bouteloua curtipendula
  • Junegrass Koeleria macrantha
  • Little Bluestem Schizachyrium scoparium
  • Prairie Dropseed Sporobolus heterolepis

 

Prairie Plants

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