Plant by Habitat: Boreal Forest

Over past few weeks, we covered a variety of natural communities found in the Upper Midwest including: Deciduous Forests, Prairie, Pine Barrens, and Oak Savannas. Each post is intended to help readers select groups of plants which grow together naturally. This post will focus on the trees and shrubs which make up the coniferous and boreal forests of the Upper Midwest.

Red Breasted Nuthatches enjoy peanuts in addition to conifer seeds and insects.

The key feature of a coniferous forest, are of course the coniferous trees. In the Upper Midwest these forests are composed of dense stands of Eastern White Pine (More on Native Pines), White Spruce (More on Native Spruce), and/or Balsam Fir. When grown in close proximity these trees form a dense canopy which creates shade below throughout the year. These trees are home to native bird species such as Pine Siskins, Red Breasted Nuthatches, and Pine Grosbeaks; all of which will feed on the seeds of these plants by extracting their meal from the cones produced by the trees.

Black Hills Spruce is a subspecies of White Spruce which is generally easy to find.

These stands of Pine, Spruce, and Fir may not be entirely homogenous; other trees which can be found in these forests include: Hemlock, Paper Birch, and Quaking Aspen. Paper Birch is an attractive tree with white bark which many people choose to plant in their front yard. Quaking Aspen is another option; it grows remarkably quickly. Both the Paper Birch and the Quaking Aspen are deciduous, but neither grow a large shade- providing canopy (like an Oak or Maple would).

If the tree cover is dense, the understory will be sparsely populated, but some shrubs found in the understory include: Serviceberry, Witch Hazel, and Blueberry. Blueberry can be particularly tricky to grow as it requires a low soil ph ideally between 4.0 and 6.0. If your yard has much limestone, the ph is likely to0 high. Serviceberry and Witch Hazel provide interesting color at opposite ends of the year. Serviceberry will bloom with white, showy flowers in the very early spring. Witch Hazel will turn vibrant yellow in the fall.

Our Alleghany Serviceberry's showy spring blooms.

In the forest you are unlikely to come across much grass, however you may find other forms of ground cover including Wild Sarsaparilla and Bunchberry. I haven't seen much of either commercially available, so if you are looking for something to put down other than turf grass, you could consider Pine straw or needle mulch, stone, and/or try some ferns such as: Christmas Fern or Lady Fern.

Coniferous forests as described in this post are common in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan than in the rest of the Midwest. If you are unsure of these plant selection, please visit your state's DNR or Forestry website for information on coniferous forests in your state. Happy planting!

Plant by Habitat: Deciduous Forest

A recent theme for many posts has been planting by habitat, whereby we've tried to identify native plants which can be planted together to simulate natural communities. For most of these communities trees are the backbone with shrubs and other plants being the guts. Depending on what you already have in your yard, you could be off to a good start. This post will focus on the Deciduous Forest.

A number of tree species which can be easily found commercially may already be planted in your yard. In the Upper Midwest, trees common in yards and the forests include: the Sugar Maple, Red Maple, and White Oak. These trees are excellent shade trees for your yard, and they support a host of wildlife. Common forest birds which are likely to be attracted to these trees include: Red Bellied Woodpeckers, Downey and Hairy Woodpeckers, Black Capped Chickadees, White Breasted Nuthatches, Blue Jays, and Yellow Bellied Sapsuckers. Maple sap may even be eaten by migratory birds who take advantage of the Sapsucker's drill holes including Ruby Throated Hummingbirds. An Oak's acorns will attract a variety of other kinds of critters including Squirrels and Chipmunks. Mor e information on these trees can be found in earlier posts; Information on Oaks or Information on Maples.

Red Bellied Woodpecker comes down for a visit.

A number of other trees make up the skeleton of the deciduous forest; note that some of these trees may be more difficult to find than their Oak or Maple counterparts. These trees include: American Beech, American Elm, Basswood, Black Cherry, and Shagbark Hickory. Black Cherry will attract certain species of caterpillar which are eaten by birds, and the fruit of the tree will also attract our feathered friends including some which may not come as regularly to feeders such as Orchard Orioles. The Black Cherry is also very attractive when in bloom. The American Beech produces a nut which is smaller than an acorn. Beech nuts are eaten by Red Headed Woodpeckers, the Tufted Titmouse, and Red Breasted Nuthatches. The Shagbark Hickory's bark is an excellent hunting ground for birds like Nuthatches and the Brown Creeper as the bark is home to many insects.

Once you've selected some variety of trees for your forest planting, you'll want to move on to the understory. The Mapleleaf Viburnum is a good Viburnum to consider when looking for forest shrubs. This plant can provide excellent cover and protection for birds and small mammals. It may produce abundant fruit eaten by birds like Grouse or Turkey. American Witchhazel has showy yellow flowers in the fall. The fruit produced by this shrub is eaten by Northern Bobwhites, Grouse, and Eastern Cottontail Rabbits. Witchhazel can be grown as a shrub or managed to be grown as a small tree.

Birds like this Gray Catbird enjoy dense shrubby cover.

If providing dense cover with trees and shrubs, you may encounter a challenge in selecting flowers which will tolerate the shade. Here are some suggestions for native flowers which you may be able to find for this habitat: Jack in the Pulpit, Large Flowered Trillium, and Virginia Bluebells. Trillium has a showy white flower which appears in May or June. The Bluebells grow low to the ground and have small blue flowers which present early in the year in April or May, around the same time the Jack in the Pulpit flowers.

If interested in having a forest getaway, this post should be a good place to get started. Many other native plants also grow in the Deciduous Forest, ask your local nursery for more information. Happy planting.

Plant by Habitat: Tall Grass Prairie

If you're interested in finding plants which grow naturally together, you've come to the right place. So far, we've touched on Oak Savannas and Pine Barrens; this post will cover plants you can find commercially available if you're interested in planting a prairie.

You too can grow a prairie. Here's a sample of ours including Purple Coneflower, Black Eyed Susan, and Blue Lupine

Many retailers carry prairie mixes of native seed. These mixes are often tailored to some specific growing conditions. So make sure you've thought about where you intend lay the seed down. Here are some questions to consider: Is it dry or wet? Is it clay? How much sun or shade does the site receive? The mixes often also have themes like "best for butterflies" or "good for birds." This will impact the content of the mix. Most retailers provide details about the content of each mix detailing an expected percentage of seed per plant.

One quick aside, if the site isn't getting a good amount of sun, prairie plants probably aren't the best choice, many depend on a lot of sun, after all it is the prairie.

As such, I won't be focusing on trees this time, instead this post will focus in on some good varieties of plants you may wish to purchase for your prairie.

Tall Plants: The prairie was home to many plants as tall or taller than an adult. If you are interested in these kinds of plants, that's great, but they certainly aren't for everyone. They can make a really nice background for other prairie plants.

Big Blue Stem is an attractive, tall prairie grass which can readily grow to 7 feet. We have found that birds really enjoy it in the winter including: Dark Eyed Juncos, American Tree Sparrows, and Pine Siskins. During the summer, it's not unusual for us to find American Toads on the ground at the base of the plant which can be remarkably dense. Compass Plant is another attractive native which can grow to be remarkably tall. This isn't one we've attempted to grow ourselves, but we've seen the showy yellow flowers grown locally.

Purple Coneflower is also very easy to grow and it attracts both birds and butterflies.

Less Tall Plants: Other prairie plants may grow more lowly, but be aware that how tall they grow in year one may not represent how tall they will grow in year two. Our Purple Coneflowers, Cardinal Flowers, and Little Blue Stem have gotten remarkably tall, all easily exceeding 3 feet.

Little Blue Stem is an easy to find plant which will grow as a bunch grass. It's remarkably easy to grow and the Dark Eyed Juncos seem to particularly enjoy it in the winter and early spring. Cardinal Flower has little red flag-like flowers which attract Ruby Throated Hummingbirds. It flowers a little later than some of the other wildflowers in our garden, adding some flavor to the garden a little later in the summer. This plant has actually done a little better when it's able to get some shade, our row that is in full sun seems to struggle a little more than a nearby row which gets a few more hours of shade each day.

Legumes are handy plants to include in your planting. Legumes help put nitrogen back into the soil which is beneficial for other plants.

False Indigo is a native legume which can grow into a big bush-like plant. It can be found with white or purple flowers which open earlier than some other plants you may include in your prairie such as Conefloewr or Black Eyed Susan. Blue Lupine is another native legume. Its blue flowers should appear in May ahead of the other native wildflowers. This plant is host to the Blue Karner Butterfly which is endangered. I've found that rabbits find both of these plants delicious so you may want to include some fencing to protect them as they grow.

And one more important but miscellaneous plant...

Butterfly Milkweed is a must have prairie plant for those who love the Monarch Butterfly. Its orange flowers may appear a little later than some of the other wildflowers, but it's a pollinators' delight. It doesn't seem to grow as tall as our Coneflower, but it can pretty dense, almost bush-like. Monarch Butterflies are attracted to this plant both for the flowers as adults, but it is also host to Monarch caterpillars.

Butterfly Milkweed's orange flowers up close.

There are many other plants you want to consider. The ones above only represent a small sample of the plants you want to consider. A number of other plants like: Prairie Dropseed, Blazing Star, Joe Pye Weed, Ox Eye Sunflower, and Prairie Coneflower are pretty easy to find commercially. The combination of height and color is up to you, and the choices are almost limitless. Good luck and enjoy.

Plant by Habitat: Pine Barrens

In the previous Plant by Habitat post, we identified some plant species to combine in a yard to create an Oak Savanna, in this edition, we'll describe some plants which are found in Pine Barrens.

Pine Barrens are habitat found in the Upper Midwest in parts Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Pine Barrens are home to coniferous trees like Jack or Red Pine which do well in acidic soils. Poor soil quality and highly acidic soil are characteristics of the barrens which impact what types of plants grow in these communities.

Sandy or acidic soils in your own yard may prompt you to consider planting species found in pine barrens together. The first step for creating your Pine Barren is to find the correct tree species. First you'll need Pines, and you'll start with Jack or Red Pine. You can also consider Oaks, which are commonly also featured in Pine Barrens.

Once the trees are selected, you'll want to move onto the shrubs and understory. A pine barren doesn't support much of an understory, hence the name, but certain shrubby plants are found amongst the pines. These plants include two which are commercially available and which strongly support wildlife: the American Hazelnut and the Low Bush Blueberry. Hazelnuts are eaten by a variety animals including small mammals, Wild Turkey, and Grouse. The sweet blueberries are enjoyed by people as well our animal neighbors.

Lupine is an attractive ground cover found in the Pine Barrens.

Much like the Oak Savanna, this habitat was filled with prairie grasses and wildflowers. Plants common to the Pine Barrens include June Grass, Little Blue Stem, Blazing Star, and Blue Lupine. The Lupine is of particular importance to the habitat. It is a legume and puts nitrogen back into the soil for use by other plant species. It is also the host for the endangered Karner Blue Butterfly whose caterpillars feed on the leaves.

Endangered butterflies may not be the only interesting visitors to your lawn if you successfully establish a Pine Barren. By planting Jack Pines and Blueberries in particular you may help the recovery of the endangered Kirkland's Warbler as your yard may become an attractive nesting site.

For More Information:

WI DNR - Pine Barrens
MI DNR - Pine Barrens

Plant by Habitat: Oak Savanna

Recently I posted information about native Oaks and later realized it might be helpful to have some information not just about which plants are native vs invasive, but it may also be helpful to have some sense of which native plants actually grow together naturally. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll do some "Plant by Habitat" posts to hopefully help inform decisions about which native plants to purchase together.

The Oak Savanna is a type of habitat which features large Oaks with room to really spread their limbs. These savannas were once found throughout the Midwest and served as the boarder between the prairies and grasslands of the Great Plains and the forests of the Eastern United States. A variety of Oak species were found in the savannas including: Black Oak, Bur Oak, Northern Red Oak, and White Oak. These trees can be found commercially available, and if you are interested in planting your own Oak Savanna, an Oak is a good place to start.

That said other trees and plants could be found in the savannas. Shagbark Hickory and Black Cherry are also excellent savanna trees to consider. Black Cherry is particularly interesting as it is a host for a variety of caterpillars and its fruit is eaten by many birds.

Once you've selected your trees, you are on to deciding what will go in the understory. You will need to decide exactly how wide open your savanna will be. Some savannas would have had some shrubby understory if less frequented by fire, but those more frequented by fire would have had more prairie grasses and flowers.

Highbush Cranberry can be really attractive in the fall.

My favorite shrubs to consider are Viburnums. American Highbush Cranberry, Nannyberry, and Mapleleaf Viburnum are interesting choices. Viburnums tend to be pretty tolerant of most growing situations, have attractive foliage in the fall, and they tend to be pretty easy to find commercially. These are really great shrubs, we have 4 Highbush Cranberries and 2 Nannyberries in our yard. Pagoda Dogwood, Hazelnut, and Staghorn Sumac are also good choices. The Sumac and the Dogwood are fairly shade tolerant, so they may not be best suited to an open savanna habitat, they do however produce fruit which can be eaten by birds. The Hazelnut will produce nuts which fall to ground and are eaten by mammals like Gray, Red, or Fox Squirrels but also by Wild Turkey and Ruffed Grouse.

By this point, you have a tree or two selected; you've decided on a shrub or two, and now you need something to cover the ground. You are now looking for plants which do well when burned back semi-regularly. You are going to want some prairie grasses, some of the easiest species to acquire are Little Blue Stem, Big Blue Stem, and Prairie Dropseed. The flowers for an Oak Savanna can be more difficult to find but they include plants loved by butterflies such as Purple Milkweed and Common Milkweed. Shooting Star, Wild Indigo, and Wild Columbine are also reasonably easy to find as plugs or seeds.

We put in a few indigo plants last year which were not by the rabbits.

With these plants in place, a lawn would be replaced with a small Oak Savanna. It would be fairly biodiverse in terms of plants species and be able to support a number of bird and butterfly species. If you live in the Midwest (see map), there is a reasonable chance your yard was once in fact part of the Oak Savannas. The Oak Savannas were replaced with farmland and then the farmland with subdivisions, so why not give part of your yard back and return it to nature, after all the birds and the butterflies are the ones who have to live with it.