NATIVE POLLINATOR PLANTS

Baby Blue Eyes

A carpet of beautiful blue flowers, bliss for bees! Annual groundcover, flowers from early spring to midsummer. Must be kept moist if grown in full sun-- prefers partial shade.

California Poppy

Three inches tall, with beautiful orange flowers. The state flower of California. Planet Bee uses them in all our seed balls! Medicinal uses include the treatment of insomnia, aches, nervous agitation, and diseases of the bladder and liver.

California Yampah

3-foot perennial grass-like plant with white flowers in summer. Native to Mt Diablo. It can be found in the Central Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada foothills, growing in moist soil, often near streams. Yampah seeds and leaves can be eaten, as can their tubers. These "Indian potatoes" were relished by American Indians to the point the plants were over-harvested to extinction in many areas. Uncooked yampah roots are a gentle laxative if consumed in excess and were used medicinally for this purpose.

Checkerbloom

2-foot spreading wildflower native to the coastal prairie with beautiful pink flowers. A nectar and larval food source for the West Coast Lady, Painted Lady, Common Checkered Skipper, and the Gray Hairstreak butterflies.

Narrowleaf Milkweed

2-4 foot plant with pink flowers in summer. Larval host and food source for the Monarch butterfly. Tolerates shade. Different Native American tribes have had various uses for it. The Zuni used the silky seed fibers to make yarn, which was woven into a fabric worn by dancers. The Pueblo have eaten green milkweed pods and uncooked roots. The Yokia Indians of Mendocino County have eaten young flowers. Several tribes have turned the sticky sap into chewing gum by heating it until it became solid, then adding salmon fat or dear grease.

Showy Tarweed

3-4 foot plant with yellow flowers. Drought tolerant. Some native North American Indian tribes have relied on tarweed seeds as their staple food source. These seeds are rich in oil and can be ground into a powder, eaten dry, mixed with water, or combined with cereal flour.

Silver Carpet Spreading Beach Aster

Ground cover with silver leaves and purple flowers in late summer. Native to the coastal bluffs of Monterey County. Host to Gabb's Checkerspot Butterfly larvae.

Silver Lupine

It is a tall plant with silver leaves and blue flowers in summer—host to the caterpillar of San Francisco’s rare and endangered Mission Blue Butterfly. Native Americans have drunk tea with lupine leaves to treat nausea, failure to urinate, and internal bleeding. Some subspecies of lupine have poisonous seeds.