Another good one to consider is Lead Plant, Amorpha canescens. It has disappeared due to over grazing and farming. I got a start from a woman in Kansas, I dug out a small rooted section of a large plant that was growing among a patch of them clustered on the edge of her property down by the road, she considered them country weeds and had a laugh that my sister and I were interested in her weeds. The roots system showed that what looked like separate plants were actually one plant and it was tough getting a start. My plant has been slow growing, I think its been working mostly on roots for two years now. You can purchase seeds or small plants online but its not commonly sold.

One I keep thinking of is Compass Plant --Siliphium laciniatum. Its threatened in many areas. My problem is space (in sun that is) and this looks like a big one.

agalinis tenuifolia occurred naturally and grew well in my oklahoma prairie. Since it's a reseeding annual that migrates around...I don't see it being very practical in a bed (feel the same about indian paintbrush). However, feel free to try it...the flowers are great on agalnis's. Both the plants TR referred to were planted in the prairie too and compass plant was a very impressive plant (height and breath), though the lovely leaves are pretty much lost when it heads into flowering.

I wintersowed A. canescens back in January, so we'll see if I can get some going from those seeds. That one I think is still relatively secure in this area, though I'm sure it's declined considerably. I've seen it occasionally when visiting Kansas prairies like the Konza. I hear that rabbits love it, so I might have to fence it for a year or two.

There's a little demonstration prairie at a school near here that has both S. laciniatum and S. terebinthinaceum (prairie dock) in it. I'm often thinking about where I could put something really tall like that. I think I'm more drawn to the prairie dock since its leaves are basal, plus I like the woody look of the stems. I've thought about putting a few of them out in the corner of the front yard near the sidewalk. I read about Piet Oudolf doing something similar with Peucedanum verticillare: "...up close it creates a sense of looking past narrow pillars to whatever else is behind". I also like the boldness of it, like I don't just have native wildflowers, I have native wildflowers that are big enough to kick your ass. And I'm going to plant them right up here in your face.

Yeah, I prefer S. terebinthinaceum myself, and the flowers are actually more striking than the laciniatum flowers.

So...I agree!

I totally agree with you about the impracticality of the Agalinis. It's said that it does best where the soil is often disturbed -- by gopher tunnels, for instance. Once the other species I've planted around it fill in, I doubt I'm going to go digging around just to give it a chance to reseed. Perhaps it's fine though as something interesting to grow for the first year or two until that happens. I also frost-seeded Indian paintbrush in the front yard where I planted blue grama and buffalo grass last summer and there's still a lot of bare ground. I suspect the grasses will fill in completely this year and perhaps the paintbrush won't get a chance at all, but I thought it was worth a shot. I also frost-seeded Viola pedata and Nothoscordum bivalve into the same area. I had seen these three wildflowers growing together (along with Lithospermum canescens) last spring, in a Missouri prairie preserve that had been recently burned.

One year I planted Castilleja exserta seed, I got zero plants, its an annual. I've read the perennial Indian Paintbrush is difficult from seed and slow, you will have to let us know how yours do. I saw it growing thickly in eastern Oklahoma, whole areas were red with it, but don't see it much around here. If I'd lived closer I was thinking I'd make a trip there with a paper bag and collect seed later on, it was gorgeous and very low growing.

barron, exactly how much 'breadth' are we talking about with the compass plant? Is it real wide? Tall I can handle, width is another matter, I like the leaves too. Native America Seed sells seed. I'm forced to steer clear of the really big stuff like Queen of the Prairie because of space issues, those spots are allotted to native shrubs which I need in winter or else it would look terrible. I like the tall spikes you get with Standing Cypress, they don't take up any horizontal space to speak of. Now if that neighbor of mine would cut down the Hackberry trees all along the west in back I'd have a big place for all those big ones along the border. Wish he would.

If you ever see buffalo grass growing around there woods tea you can collect the runners that form on top and plant those. Each long runner has several tiny plants along the stems and people like to mow them down for visual reasons. I got some from a guy up the street, one long runner would have maybe 25 plants on it.

Oh, compass plant would probably cover 3 square foot for one mature plant, those basal leaves are BIG, looking like a huge prairie fern. It also slowly multi-crowns as well, so can get a pretty good patch in five or ten years. I would say you can weave some smaller stuff in it's real estate patch though.
Queen of the Prairie is a wetlander that doesn't like things real hot...so never tried it :) I love it though.

Here's one. I thought of this after the discussion of local genotypes on the "Is it cheating...." thread. Salvia Penstemonoides. It was thought to be extinct in the wild until several were found growing on the Edwards Plateau in Texas in the 1980's. Its a Texas native but it grows well here, attracts hummingbirds and other pollinators not to mention that it is beautiful. Other people and myself have sent seeds to a few people in trades so this plant is gradually being spread around. This is a good example of a plant that falls out of the 100 Mile Radius Rule or the Plant Local Genotypes Only Rule. What's the best policy in a case like this? Plant something endangered or follow strict adherence to a rule? Should a 'Texas' native not be planted in Oklahoma? Is there anything more man-made than a state line? (cough)

Personally, I am 100% in favor of the idea of growing it in spite of it being 'agin the law' in some people's book.

Barron, that compass plant is out. That is way big. I googled and saw a photo of a big man standing by a bigger than him plant.

Oh yeah...it's the biggest thing I've seen on the prairies (in regards of being a herbaceous plant)...though canadian goldenrod may rival it on occasion.

I had no idea. Really BIG. I think it has some of the deepest roots too going by the prairie root charts, you know, I'd like to get one of those to frame. I'd hang it by my Dustbowl copy of 'Migrant Mother'

Where I do my work, we are in an "ecotone", an area where two broad ecological regions intergrade. This means, among other things, that species from both regions are found naturally. So...I decided I'd like more color in some of our "wet prairie" planting areas. My selection for this was fireweed-Chamerion angustifolium-and to get seed, we ended up with Idaho genetics. This plant can be found north of here, in the Nicolet National Forest area. But because it hasn't caught the attention of our primary native seed purveyors, all of whom BTW are from Southern WI, we had to use this source. To be honest, I could care less. That plant wasn't coming back around here by any means, save this idea I had. Just another example, I guess, of my non-purist tendencies. And on the bigger scale, no matter how careful someone may be in selecting local genetics, we're not going back to 1830, let alone 1730, no matter what we do. I get much more excited about imagining and working towards a future where our hands have definitely been in the mix. As far as I'm concerned, there is no other future.

+oM

wiscon, you sound like a realist to me. I googled the plant, in mass it looks rather similar to the 'evil' purple loose strife. Plants of the Southwest sells seed--described as found at high elevations along mountain streams-- that is one cold hardy plant. Blooms all summer. Can't beat that. Sometimes when I run across some off the beaten track seed of a plant I've wanted, I'm too busy being flabberghasted that I found it at all and would not care one single whit what part of the US it came from. I have a list a mile long of lusted for plants that have no seed source at all, its the case more often than not.

Don't even try it TR...I've tried it many times with lust in my heart, it just does mountains and cool climates.

Laugh. I wasn't. When I see plants that have those low zones on the description thats all I need to know, add the moderate water use info and its NO WAY. The words 'mountian' or 'alpine' are red flags that mean move on to the next plant.