Native Plants | EMSWCD

Physocarpus capitatus

Pacific ninebark (Physocarpus capitatus) is a dense deciduous shrub growing up to 12 feet tall. The name refers to the unusual bark, which naturally peels off in many colorful layers.

The shrub has maple-like lobed leaves and attractive clusters of small white flowers in May and June. The unique fruit is a glossy red pod which turns dry and brown, and then splits open to release seeds.

The twigs, berries, buds, and leaves are all browsed by wildlife. Pacific ninebark is very important for pollinators, especially solitary bees who lay their eggs and take shelter for the winter in the hollow stems. Pacific ninebark is also a food source for the young of spring azure butterflies, and many birds use it for nesting.

It is often found in wetlands, but also forms thickets along rivers and in moist forest habitats. It can also tolerate some drought. Create a dense deciduous screen by growing it in combination with oceanspray and Douglas spirea, or a tunnel by planting on both sides of a walkway and pruning its lower branches. Best in full sun to part shade.

Light Requirements: Part Shade
Water Requirements: Moist, Seasonally Wet
Ease of Growing: Easy to grow
Growth Rate: Fast
Spreads: Yes
Wildlife Support: Pollinators, Pest-eating Insects, Birds or Mammals
Fire-resistant: Yes
Edible: No
Mature Height: 8-12ft
Mature Width:4-7ft

Deschampsia cespitosa

Tufted Hairgrass is found around the world including the eastern and western coasts of North America, parts of South America, and Eurasia. It is a native, perennial, tussock forming grass found along stream banks and in moist meadows, fields, wet ditches and open areas surrounding lakes and ponds. Tufted hairgrass is a large densely tufted, course, long lived, perennial bunch grass. It has bright green foliage and a large volume of fountain-like seed culms emerging in early spring, making it highly aesthetic. Tufted hairgrass prefer open sites. This grass is rarely, if ever an under story species of temperate forest communities (Brown et al. 1988).

In the Pacific Northwest tufted hairgrass form pure stands in wet and intermittently flooded areas such as tidal mudflats and estuaries plant communities. It grows in seeps bogs, and brackish waters along the coastal waterways. It is very salt tolerant grass and, as a result, is commonly included in many restoration or re-vegetation projects where brackish water exists.

Tufted hairgrass is also a rapid colonizer of disturbed sites at high elevations (8,000 ft – Cascade & Sierra Range). Such characteristics make it valuable for reclamation of disturbed high elevation mines, ski slopes and high elevation meadows. Tufted hairgrass, unlike blue wildrye, is genetically heterogeneous, self-incompatible and requires wind and insect pollinators for effective fertilization. Tufted hairgrass should be included in wetland, restoration projects since it provides very dense nesting foliage and has a very long summer green period. It is also a valuable stream bank erosion plant where long-term stabilization is necessary, and should be established with a nurse crop (blue wildrye, meadow barley, California brome, Alaska brome) or native straw mulch for superior first year establishment.