Plants: Pollinator Garden and Wildflower Listing
<<< OCTOBER >>>
Plant of the Month
Verbesina alternifolia (L.) Britton ex Kearney Asteraceae – Yellow Wingstem
Have you seen the tall yellow daisies growing throughout the park ravine? Meet the alluvial soil-loving Wingstem also called yellow ironweed. Growing 4-8.5 ft tall and blooming yellow in late August through September, Wingstem is amongst the most populous herbaceous plants in MRRNP. It is a vigorous plant in rich, loose soil in full sun to part shade and may be considered too weedy for smaller gardens but it is a very valuable provider of floral resources for flower-visiting insects: bees, beetles, birds, butterflies, and myriad flies make use of the blooms. Wingstem also competes strongly with many exotic, invasive plants and can reduce or prevent their establishment in vulnerable areas.
The Pollinator Garden
Our pollinator garden is both beautiful and meaningful. It’s designed and planted with specific nectar and pollen producing plants that attract pollinating insects known as pollinators.
Pollinators, such as bees and butterflies, are important to helping plants grow. Our food supply chain depends on it. To attract and support pollinators, we planted a variety of flowering native plants that offer nectar and pollen throughout the growing season (particularly milkweed), avoid the use of pesticides and place similar flowers close to one another. Check out our pollinator garden and learn more through two powerful educational posters.
Explore Indigenous Appalachian Plant Species
We are in the process of developing a catalog with photos and facts about the various trees and plants in the park. To reference the Plant Catalog effectively, botanical markers that contain the family, genus and specie name of selected plants and trees are placed in the park.
Wildflower Listing
Aquilegia canadensis – Canada Columbine* (wiki, usda)
Arisaema triphyllum – Jack-in-the-Pulpit* (wiki, usda)
Aruncus dioicus – Goatsbeard* (wiki, usda)
Asarum canadense – Wild Ginger* (wiki, usda)
Aster cordifolius – Blue Heart-leaved Aster* (wiki, usda)
Aster divaricatus – White Wood Aster* (wiki, usda)
Caulophyllum thalictroides – Blue Cohosh* (wiki, usda)
Cimicifuga (Actaea) racemosa – Bugbane, Black Cohosh*
Claytonia virginiana – Spring Beauty*
Dentaria diphylla – Twin-leaf Toothwort*
Dentaria laciniata – Cut-leaf Toothwort*
Dicentra eximia – Wild Bleeding Heart
Eupatorium maculatum – Joe-Pye Weed*
Geranium maculatum – Wild Geranium*
Heuchera villosa ëAtropurpureaí –
Coral Bells (Pacific Northwest species)
Houstonia caerulea – Bluets, Quaker Ladies*
Hydrophyllum canadense – Maple-leaved Waterleaf
Hydrophyllum virginianum –
Virginia Waterleaf*Jeffersonia diphylla – Twinleaf
Mertensia virginica – Virginia Bluebells*
Mitella diphylla – Mitrewort, Bishopís Cap*
Phlox divaricata – Woodland Phlox*
Podophyllum peltatum – Mayapple*
Polemonium reptans – Jacobís Ladder*
Polygonatum pubescens – Downy Solomonís Seal*
Sanguinaria canadensis – Bloodroot*
Sedum ternatum – Woodland Stonecrop*
Smilacina racemosa – False Solomonís Seal*
Stylophorum diphyllum – Celandine Poppy
Thalictrum dioicum – Early Meadow Rue
Tiarella cordifolia var. cordifolia – Running Foamflower
Trillium grandiflorum – White Trillium*
Verbesina alternifolia – Wingstem*
* denotes Sewickley native
Learn more about Pennsylvania native plants through the Pennsylvania Native Plant Society.