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The Prairie Meadow: 15 feet x 23 feet
Louise Engelstad, Landscaping With Native Plants, c 2014
According to Plants of the Black Hills and Bear Lodge Mountains, this area is classified as a
mixed grass prairie. Grasses found here are western wheatgrass, blue grama, prairie junegrass,
needlegrasses, and little bluestem. Flowers include coneflowers, goldenrod, yarrow,
spiderwort, scurfpea, and others. If more moisture is available, leadplant, Maximilian
sunflower, big bluestem, and switchgrass are also found.
Pasque flowers (Anemone patens)
Light: Full sun; tolerates part shade.
Soil: Any except heavy clay or wet soil.
Moisture: Little water and good drainage.
Benefits: Butterfly nectar.
Height: 1 foot mound.
Blooms: April to May
followed by feathery seed
heads in June.
Color: Lacy furry green
foliage, light lavender flowers.
Spacing: 1 foot.
Flowers push up through the soil before the leaves. Seed heads
similar to prairie smoke.
Whorled milkweed (Asclepias verticillata)
Light: Full to partial sun.
Soil: Dry, sandy.
Moisture: Dry.
Benefits: Monarch butterfly larval food.
Height: 2 feet.
Blooms: June to July.
Color: Green to white and pink.
Spacing: 2 feet.
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Nodding onion (Allium cernuum)
Light: Full sun.
Soil: Sand, loam, clay.
Moisture: Medium to moist.
Benefits: Butterfly nectar.
Height: 1 to 2 feet.
Blooms: July to August.
Color: White and pink.
Spacing: 6 inches to 1 foot.
This plant is long-lived, super hardy, and looks great in
short prairie gardens and meadows. Plant in masses for a
stunning late summer effect. It thrives in any moderately
rich soil, from rocky hillsides to damp clay.
Leadplant (Amorpha canescens)
Light: Full sun, partial.
Soil: Sand, loam.
Moisture: Dry, medium.
Benefits: Butterfly nectar.
Height: 2 to 3 feet.
Blooms: June to July.
Color: Purple.
Spacing: 2 feet.
Leadplant exhibits a unique display of both foliage
and flowers. Spikes of iridescent purple flowers
appear atop the delicate silver-gray foliage in the
heat of mid-summer. Extremely long-lived, this is
one of the few true shrubs of the prairie.
Leadplant's deep taproot makes it extremely
drought tolerant. Thrives in any well-drained soil.
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Heath Aster (Aster ericoides)
Light: Full sun.
Soil: Sand, loam.
Moisture: Dry, medium.
Benefits: Butterfly and moth nectar. Larval food for
northern crescent butterflies.
Height: 1 to 3 feet.
Blooms: August to October.
Color: White.
Spacing: 1 foot.
Not only does Heath Aster produce a blizzard of
bright white flowers in late summer and early fall, it
will thrive on the driest sandy and gravelly soils.
Creeping slowly by rhizomes to form small
"bushes," Aster ericoides is one of the longest lived
asters.
Smooth Aster (Aster laevis)
Light: Full sun.
Soil: Sand, loam.
Moisture: Dry, medium.
Benefits: Butterfly and moth nectar. Larval food
for northern crescent butterflies.
Height: 2 to 4 feet.
Blooms: August to October.
Color: Blue.
Spacing: 1 foot.
This aster produces a profusion of deep blue, starlike flowers in late autumn after most other plants
are long gone. Extremely hardy, it defies frosts and
keeps on blooming, often well into November. A
strong perennial, Aster laevis will grow in almost
any soil.
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New England Aster (Aster novae-angliae)
Light: Full sun, partial.
Soil: Sand, loam, clay.
Moisture: Medium, moist.
Benefits: Butterfly and moth nectar. Larval food for
northern crescent butterflies.
Height: 3 to 6 feet.
Blooms: August to October.
Color: Pink, purple, blue.
Spacing: 1 to 1.5 feet.
Tall and majestic, this aster’s deep blue, purple, and
sometimes pink flowers are highlights of the late
season landscape. Aster novae-angliae is a critical fall
nectar source for butterflies, especially Monarchs as
they stock up for their long migration to Mexico.
Northern Crescent Butterfly and
caterpillar
Butterfly overwinters as a partially grown
caterpillar.
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Sideoats Grama (Bouteloua curtipendula)
Light: Full sun.
Soil: Sand, loam.
Moisture: Dry, medium.
Benefits: Wildlife cover and seeds for food. Larval food
for Common wood-nymph butterfly and Crossline
skippers.
Height: 2 to 3 feet.
Blooms: August to September.
Color: Straw.
Spacing: 1 foot.
Warm season grass.
Purple Prairie Clover (Dalea purpurea)
Light: Full sun.
Soil: Sand, loam, clay.
Moisture: Dry, medium.
Benefits: Butterfly nectar, wildlife cover, and a s a
legume, fixes nitrogen in the soil. Larval food for
blues butterfly.
Height: 1 to 2 feet.
Blooms: July to August.
Color: Purple.
Spacing: 1 foot.
Melissa Blues Butterfly and caterpillar
Overwinters as an egg.
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Pale Purple Coneflower (Echinacea pallida)
Light: Full sun.
Soil: Sand, loam, clay.
Moisture: Dry, medium.
Benefits: Butterfly nectar and seeds for birds.
Height: 3 to 5 feet.
Blooms: June to July.
Color: Purple.
Spacing: 1 foot.
A deep taproot makes this long-lived plant capable of
handling hot dry situations with aplomb.
Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum)
Light: Full sun.
Soil: Sand, loam.
Moisture: Dry, medium.
Benefits: Pollinator nectar.
Height: 0.5 feet.
Blooms: May to June.
Color: Pink.
Spacing: 0.5 feet.
A rock and sand garden favorite. The unique feathery pink
seedheads make this a star of the springtime flowers. Geum
triflorum spreads slowly by rhizome to form a low growing
groundcover. Excellent for hot, dry spots, it thrives in any
well-drained soil.
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Blanket flower (Gaillardia aristata)
Moisture: Full sun.
Soil: Any except heavy clay or wet soil, especially in winter.
Moisture: Dry. Too much water causes the plant to flop.
Benefits: Butterfly and bee nectar and pollen.
Height: To 1 foot.
Blooms: June to September.
Color: Flowers are yellow with red centers.
Spacing: 2 feet.
Forms a clump with erect stems.
Maximilian sunflower
(Helianthus maximiliani)
Light: Full sun.
Soil: Any.
Moisture: Medium to dry.
Benefits: Butterfly nectar
and larval food for
checkerspot butterflies.
Height: Forms a clump with
erect stems up to six feet
high.
Blooms: August to September.
Color: Yellow.
Checkerspot Butterfly
Spacing: 2 feet.
The flowers are all along the stem. The plant is tough, aggressive,
and rhizomatous.
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Western blue flag (Iris missouriensis)
Light: Full sun to part shade.
Soil: Loam.
Moisture: It is the most drought-tolerant of the native
irises only needing abundant moisture in the spring.
Benefits: Provides an abundance of seeds. Flowers
attract both insects and hummingbirds.
Height: 1 foot.
Blooms: May to June.
Color: Pale lilac to whitish with lilac-purple veins.
Spacing: 1 foot.
Junegrass (Koeleria macrantha)
Light: Full sun.
Soil: Sand, gravel.
Moisture: Dry.
Benefits: Wildlife cover.
Height: 2 to 3 feet.
Blooms: Early spring.
Color: Gold.
Spacing: 1 foot.
Junegrass produces lustrous silver-green
seedheads in spring and early summer.
The supporting foliage is an attractive
green-gray color. This is a clumping, cool season grass that grows actively when soil
temperatures are cool in spring and fall. It prefers full sun and dry, sandy soil. Junegrass will
not grow in clay.
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Meadow Blazingstar (Liatris ligulistylis)
Light: Full sun.
Soil: Loam.
Moisture: Medium, moist.
Benefits: Butterfly nectar and seeds for finches and
juncos.
Height: 3 to 5 feet.
Blooms: August to September.
Color: Pink, purple.
Spacing: .5 to 1 foot.
The widely-branched and numerous individual flowers
bloom over an extended period of time.
Monarchs on liatris
Blue flax (Linum lewisii)
Light: Full sun; tolerates part shade.
Soil: Any except heavy clay or wet soil.
Moisture: Moderate to little water and good
drainage.
Benefits: Butterfly nectar.
Height: 2 feet.
Blooms: June to August.
Color: Bright blue.
Spacing: 3 feet.
Erect, airy, vase shaped plant with 1-inch skyblue flowers that open each morning and fall by late afternoon. Self-seeds readily and freely.
Cut back brown foliage in late summer for repeat bloom.
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Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)
Light: Full sun, partial.
Soil: Sand, loam, clay.
Moisture: Dry, medium, moist.
Benefits: Butterfly and moth nectar.
Height: 2 – 5 feet.
Blooms: July to September.
Color: Lavender.
Spacing: 2 feet.
The intricate lavender flowers of Bergamot attract a
plethora of butterflies, and the strong stems are
sometimes used by indigo buntings to build their nests.
Beardtongue (Penstemon grandiflorus)
Light: Full sun.
Soil: Sand, gravel.
Moisture: Dry.
Benefits: Bee and hummingbird nectar, food for butterfly
larva, and seeds for juncos and finches.
Height: 2 to 4 feet.
Blooms: May to June.
Color: Lavender.
Spacing: 1 foot.
Penstemon grandiflorus requires excellent drainage,
preferring dry sandy and rocky soils. Will not grow in
clay.
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Western sandcherry Pawnee Buttes (Prunus besseyi)
Light: Full sun; tolerates some shade.
Soil: All types except heavy clay or wet soil.
Moisture: Tolerates a wide range from medium moisture through xeric. Very hardy.
Benefits: Birds love the cherries.
Height: 3 to 8 feet tall and wide.
Blooms: May to June.
Color: White, profuse, clustered flowers with silverygreen, shiny leaves. Fall color is bronze to red.
Spacing: 5 feet.
Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
Light: Full Sun, partial.
Soil: Sand and loam.
Moisture: Medium to dry.
Benefits: Butterfly nectar and larval food.
Height: 1 to 3 feet.
Blooms: June to September.
Color: Yellow.
Spacing: 1 foot.
This biennial is easy to grow from seed. Transplants
bloom the year they are planted, and will self-sow onto
open soil.
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Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium)
Light: Full sun.
Soil: Sand, loam.
Moisture: Dry.
Benefits: Skipper butterfly and Common ringlet butterfly
larval food and wildlife cover.
Height: 2 to 3 feet.
Blooms: August – October.
Color: Bronze, red.
Spacing: 1 foot.
The blue-green foliage provides a great backdrop for prairie
flowers
in
summer,
and then turns a striking crimson in fall.
This warm season grass greens up when
soil temperatures reach 55 degrees.
Common wood-nymph butterfly and
caterpillar
Hibernates as a newly-hatched caterpillar.
Crossline skipper
Overwinters as partially grown caterpillar.
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Stiff Goldenrod (Solidago rigida)
Light: Full sun.
Soil: Sand, loam, clay.
Moisture: Dry, medium.
Benefits: Butterfly and bee nectar. Seeds for
birds.
Height: 3 to 5 feet.
Blooms: August to September.
Color: Yellow.
Spacing: 1 to 1.5 feet.
A Monarch favorite, stiff goldenrod is widely
adaptable and thrives in even the most inhospitable
soils, from clay to dry sand. The stems serve as
perches for songbirds.
Western Spiderwort (Tradescantia occidentalis)
Light: Full sun.
Soil: Sand, loam.
Moisture: Dry, medium.
Benefits: Butterfly nectar.
Height: 1 foot.
Blooms: June to July.
Color: Pink.
Spacing: 1 foot.
This is an excellent groundcover for poor soils, spreading
by rhizomes to form colonies that squeeze out weeds and
explode in a riot of color in early summer. Grows in any
well-drained soil in full sun or light shade.