Habitat Garden Guide
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Habitat Garden Guide This guide introduces you to the plants that grow where the old Flagstaff sawmill operated for more than 80 years. Today the site is home to Willow Bend Environmental Education Center’s straw bale, passive-solar building that hosts our Environmental Discovery Room. Surrounding the building are five habitat gardens made up of plants that are native to the Colorado Plateau: 1. Lizard Garden 2. Pond Garden 3. Forest Garden 4. Wildflower Garden 5. Hummingbird Garden 6. Three-Sister’s Garden CONTENTS Lizard Garden Description……………………………………... 3 Plant List……………………………………….. 4 Highlighted Plants……………………………… 5-8 Pond Garden Description……………………………………... 9 Plant List……………………………………….. 10 Highlighted Plants……………………………… 11-14 Forest Garden Description……………………………………... 15 Plant List……………………………………….. 16 Highlighted Plants……………………………… 17-20 Wildflower Garden Description…………………………………….. 21 Plant List……………………………………….. 22 Highlighted Plants……………………………… 23-26 Hummingbird Garden Description……………………………………... 27 Plant List……………………………………….. 28 Highlighted Plants……………………………… 29-32 Three Sisters Edible Plant Garden Description……………………………………... 33 Plant List……………………………………….. 34 Highlighted Plants……………………………… 35-38 Creating Backyard Habitat Gardens………………... 39 About Willow Bend Environmental Education…….. 40 Acknowledgements………………………………... 41 3 Lizard Garden The lizard garden is a hill with two distinctive environments based on the north or south facing aspect of the hillside. The south slope of the hill is hot and dry, and is similar to what is found at the southern base of Mt. Elden. It features agaves and yuccas, mixed with grasses and some shrubs. The surface is mulched with a cinder soil with rocks that retain the sun’s heat. The warm rocks and logs are attractive habitats for lizards. The north side of the hill gets more shade, resulting in less heat, but is still a dry environment. This habitat is reflective of the Great Basin Desert. Predominant plants here are sagebrush with juniper and pinyon trees. 4 41 Plants that were planted in the Lizard Garden: THANK YOU SUPPORTERS! Parry’s Agave, Agave parryi* Claret Cup Cactus, Echinocereus triglochidiatus* Prickly Pear, Opuntia* Banana Yucca, Yucca Baccata* Arizona Game and Fish Western Yarrow, Achillea lanulosa Sacred Datura, Daturameteloides Yellow Wallflower, Erysimum asperum City of Flagstaff Western Wallflower, Erysimum capitatum Adobe Blanketflower, Gaillardia pinnatifida Golden Aster, Heterotheca villosa Scarlet Gilia, Ipomopsis agregata Coconino Natural Resource Conservation District Gayfeather, Liatris punctata Pearlseed, Macromeria viridiflora Desert Four O’Clock, Mirabilis multiflora Ecological Restoration Institute of Northern Arizona Pale Evening Primrose, Oenothera pallida* University Lambert’s Locoweed, Oxytropis lambertii Sunset Crater Penstemon, Penstemon clutei Pineleaf Penstemon, Penstemon pinifolius Paperflower, Psilostrophe tagetina Flagstaff Cultural Partners Groundsel, Senecio spartoides Prairie Zinnia, Zinnia grandflora Sideoats Grama, Bouteloua curtipendula Greater Flagstaff Forest Partnership Blue Grama, Bouteloua curtipendula Arizona Fescue, Festuca arizonica Beargrass, Nolina microcarpa Indian Ricegrass, Oryzopsis hymenoides Urban and Community Forestry Challenge Grant– Mutton Grass, Poa fendleriana Arizona State Lands New Mexico Needle Grass, Stipa neomexicana Fringed Sagebrush, Artemisia frigida Prairie Sage, Artemisia ludoviciana Big Sagebrush, Artemisia tridentate U.S. Forest Service True Mountain Mahogany, Cercocarpus montanus Green Rabbitbrush, Chrysothamnus nauseosus Rubber Rabbitbrush, Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus Cliff Rose, Cowania mexicana Guide to Willow Bend’s Habitat Gardens Mormon Tea, Ephedra viridis* Note: All of these plants Compiled, written, and designed by Laurie Bodmer Apache Plume, Fallugia paradoxa* may not have survived Threeleaf Sumac, Rhus trilobata with assistance from Anne Sheridan, Chris Newell, and Pinyon Pine, Pinus edulis* * Highlighted on following pages Sapna Sopori 40 5 Willow Bend PARRY’S AGAVE CLARET CUP CACTUS Agave parryi Echinocereus triglochidiatus Environmental Education Center 703 East Sawmill Road Flagstaff, Arizona 86001 (928) 779-1745 www.willowbendcenter.org Willow Bend Environmental Education Center is a private, © Br. Alfred Brousseau, Saint Mary's College non-profit 501©(3) organization, sponsored by the Coconino Natural Resource Conservation District (NRCD). Our mission is to provide educational outreach The claret cup cactus, like most cacti, services which build environmental awareness and an ethic is spiky! Its spines are white and its stems are green to bluish green. of responsible stewardship of our natural and cultural resources. Willow Bend was founded in 1978 (as the The outstanding beauty of this plant Resource Center for Environmental Education) to is its flower- a gorgeous scarlet-red ©W.L. Wagner @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database coordinate and assist in developing environmental bloom. Look at the center of the education programs in Northern Arizona. flower. The long green step is the You may be more familiar with flower’s stigma, which is part of the Parry’s agave’s other common plant’s reproductive system. Where did Willow Bend’s name come from? name: century plant. They are both the same plant- Agave parryi . The distinctive flower has resulted in other names for this cactus, including Willow Bend gets its name from the This agave shoots a flowering stalk heart twister and strawberry cactus. patch of coyote willow trees at the up to 18-feet high (yes, feet !). The bend of the Flagstaff Urban Trail south plant sends up the stalk after about of the educational center. The willows 25 years, blooms, and then dies. are just visible from the center, can you Luckily, new plants grow on the root systems before its death and see them? are ready to take over. 6 39 PRICKLY PEAR BANANA YUCCA Opuntia Yucca baccata CREATE BACKYARD HABITATS Improve our human communities while enhancing natural communities Gardening is a wonderful way to learn about nature and to support diverse wildlife in Flagstaff. Nature-friendly landscapes that use native plants are well-adapted to our special environment– © Br. Alfred Brousseau, Saint Mary's College © Br. Alfred Brousseau, Saint Mary's College requiring less water, energy, fertilizer, and labor. These plants enhance natural communities by Prickly pear is in the cactus family. Banana yucca is part of the agave supporting wildlife of all kinds: mammals, birds, It has large spines that grow up to family, so you may note the butterflies, other insects, and more. three-inches. Do not touch them resemblance between this yucca because they are sharp and they and Parry’s agave. The yucca is hurt! The spines grow from the different because its leaves are cactus pads, though they are thinner with no marginal spines, usually absent from the lower part and its flowering stalk only reaches USEFUL RESOURCES of the pads. Large yellow flowers up to five-feet (still an impressive with thin petals grow on the pads. height!). Flagstaff Native Plant and Seed Some people compare the flower 928-773-9406 petals to tissue paper because they Yuccas produce edible banana- are so thin. shaped fruits. Its flowers and Nature’s Rewards seeds are also edible. 928-714-9492 In the summer months, prickly pear cactus fruits appear. The The yucca was a special plant to Warner’s Nursery and Landscaping fruits are fleshy, egg-shaped, and Native Americans in the area 928-774-1983 about two-inches long. These because its leaves contain a natural edible fruits can add a delightful fiber that was used to make National Wildlife Foundation flavor to summer drinks, such as baskets, rope, sandals, and mats. www.nwf.org lemonade. The fruits are often available at the Flagstaff Farmer’s Native Plants for High-Elevation Western Gardens Market if you want to sample the Book by Janice Busco and Nancy R. Morin delicious flavor. 38 7 GAMBEL OAK ROCKY MTN. BEEPLANT PALE EVENING PRIMROSE MORMON TEA Quercus gambelii Cleome serrulata Oenothera pallida Ephedra viridis www.Southwestcoloradowildflowers.com © Br. Alfred Brousseau, Saint Mary's College Gambel oak is Arizona's only oak with shiny, bright green oak-like leaves: 2 to 6 inches long and deeply lobed like an www.Southwestcoloradowildflowers.com Mormon tea is a coniferous shrub eastern oak. A deciduous tree, its leaves that grows up to three feet tall. It is come out rather late in spring, often in A member of the caper family, a jointed plant with inconspicuous May, and they turn yellow to reddish- Rocky Mountain Beeplant (also scaly leaves at its stem joints. brown and fall in October. known as Beeweed) is an erect Pale evening primroses grow annual that grows to about three feet around sandy areas. They grow up Male cones and female cones are on The Gambel Oak grows most often in in our area. The flowers come in the to 18-inches tall. separate plants. The male and female thickets of a dozen or more. They are form of dozens of bright, pink to plants even grow in different usually clones that grew up from a purplish flowers about ½ long with Their white flower blossoms open environments! Males prefer windier, single root system, often after a fire long stamens, giving the plant a in the early evening and close in steeper, drier spots to disperse their (similar to aspen trees). fuzzy appearance. the morning- this adaptation pollen with help from the wind, allows the wildflower to retain its while females prefer moister areas Gambel Oaks provide forage and cover This