Plant Press Arizona – Winter 2022/2023
Posted on Feb 28, 2023
The Winter 2022/2023 edition of Plant Press Arizona is available to view or download for free from our website. Read to learn about the importance of grasses and grasslands!

We host events periodically throughout the year. Our events are announced at least 2 weeks in advance to our email list subscribers, and posted here on our Chapter webpage. To join our email list, please contact [email protected].
Our activities are open to Chapter members as well as the general public, unless stated otherwise. If you’re interested in becoming a Chapter member, please view the Membership page. Yearly membership is just $30 for individuals, $15 for students, and $35 for families.
View the AZNPS Events Calendar to learn about upcoming events hosted by other Chapters throughout the state. Also, recordings of many presentations are available to watch on the AZNPS YouTube page.
To stay up to date on our meetings and other activities, please join our email list.
Follow the AZNPS Phoenix Chapter’s Facebook page for more information about local native plants news, research, and events!
We also invite you to follow our Chapter on Instagram and use the hashtag #aznativeplants to help us raise awareness of Arizona’s amazing native plants!
Several local organizations host free or low-cost seasonal wildflower walks, interpretive hikes, and educational activities. Learn more by clicking on the links below.
Maricopa County Parks & Recreation
If you would like to learn which plants are native to our area, we invite you to view our Chapter’s List of Recommended Native Landscaping Plants (draft version). It highlights plants that are: 1) native to the Phoenix metro area, 2) beneficial to wildlife, 3) low-water-use, 4) relatively easy to care for, and 5) generally available at local nurseries or seed suppliers.
The AZNPS Grow Native resources provide additional information about landscaping with native plants, including planning your garden and pamphlets available to download.
We’ve compiled a list of metro Phoenix nurseries that generally offer a selection of native plants. Some have more variety than others, and inventory changes frequently or may be seasonal. So, it is best to inquire with a few nurseries by phone or email to determine which one suits your needs.
In addition, several organizations hold desert plant sale fundraisers in the Spring and Fall. We’ll update this announcement if/when additional local native plant sales are scheduled.
Pop-up Plant Sale at SRP Water Conservation Expo: (Tempe, AZ) March 4. Advance event registration required.
Boyce Thompson Arboretum – Spring Plant Sale: (Superior, AZ) March 10 (Arboretum members), March 11-27 (public).
Desert Botanical Garden – Spring Plant Sale: (Phoenix, AZ) March 16 (members), March 17 – 19 (public). Reservation required for entry.
Maricopa County Master Gardener – Spring Plant Sale: (Phoenix, AZ) March 18. Reservation required for entry.
Butterfly Wonderland – Spring Plant Sale: (Scottsdale, AZ) March 18-19.
Center for Native and Urban Wildlife (CNUW) – Spring Plant Sale: (Scottsdale, AZ) March 23-25. CNUW is also accepting donations of used pots (especially 1 gallon size), which they will happily reuse in their greenhouse.
Monsoon season and fall are terrific times to add wildflower seeds to your landscape, assuming it rains! For a wide variety of Arizona native plant seeds, we recommend the following sources:
Maricopa Native Seed Library – This new local project offers native seeds for free! Similar in format to other seed libraries, the public may obtain up to 3 seed packets per month. Available at several Maricopa Community Colleges libraries.
Desert Botanical Garden – Purchase seeds online or in person at their Garden Shop.
Native Seeds/SEARCH – Purchase seeds online from their conservation farm in southern Arizona.
Borderlands Restoration Network – Purchase seeds online or visit their nursery in Patagonia.
If you feel there’s a local nursery, native plant fundraiser, or seed supplier we should add to our list, please let us know!
Help control the spread of Stinknet to protect native habitats and prevent wildfires!
Also known as Globe chamomile (Oncosiphon pilluliferum), Stinknet is a noxious weed that is spreading quickly throughout central Arizona. In Spring and early Summer, flowering Stinknet plants can easily be spotted, as they look like little yellow lollipops. If you have it on your property, take action to remove and dispose of the plants before the seeds ripen and have a chance to spread!
Learn more by viewing our Stinknet pamphlet, which is available in English and Spanish. Please download, read, and share this important information with others!
Stinknet plant flowering. Photo credit: Lisa Rivera
Name | Role | Contact |
Lisa Rivera | President | [email protected] |
Danielle Carlock | Treasurer |
Want to get involved? We've got just the thing!
Outdoor Opportunities
If you are interested in volunteer activities related to restoration, invasive species control, gardening, conservation, or scientific research, we recommend contacting the following organizations.
Citizen Science Opportunities
These are citizen science and community science projects you can participate in on your own at home, during a walk in your neighborhood, or while visiting Arizona’s public lands.
Desert Refuge – Monarchs and Milkweeds in Arizona
Document the presence of monarchs and the seasonal changes of milkweed at a location of your choosing, now until June 2023.
Help the Desert Botanical Garden document urban saguaro cactus in metro Phoenix and take notes on their overall health.
Document the seasonal changes in plants or animals near your home by becoming a USA – National Phenology Network observer.
A special initiative in metro Phoenix to identify and map invasive plants. There is also a special project dedicated to locating stinknet (Oncosiphon piluliferum/pilulifer).
Contribute invasive buffelgrass observations to the USA – National Phenology Network’s Buffelgrass Green-Up phenophase map.
Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper
If you see milkweed plants or monarch butterflies, eggs, or caterpillars while outdoors, take a photo and submit your sighting to this regional project.
Monarchs need milkweed and nectar plants, so hopefully you have these growing in your yard or neighborhood! Join this monarch “tagging” project to help document Western monarch migration.
Native plants attract a variety of birds. Report the type of birds you see in your yard, neighborhood, or local park.
Native flowering plants are essential for bumble bees. Help scientists track their populations by submitting photos of the ones you see.
If you have a rain gauge at home (or decide to purchase one), join this Arizona rainfall monitoring network to submit your daily rainfall totals.
Access digitized natural history data online to help transcribe and decipher field notebooks, photographs, museum labels, and data sheets from around the world.
Select from a variety of online projects to contribute to real academic research from your own computer.
Libraries as Hubs for Citizen Science
Visit one of six local libraries loaning out citizen science tools and supplies.
Posted on Feb 28, 2023
The Winter 2022/2023 edition of Plant Press Arizona is available to view or download for free from our website. Read to learn about the importance of grasses and grasslands!
Posted on Jan 04, 2023
The 2022 annual meeting was another online success, with a little different format than the previous two years: one day of presentations on Saturday December 3, 2022 over about six and a half hours, with breaks.
If you missed it — or if you were there and want to rewatch any of the sessions — hop on over to the AZNPS YouTube channel, or click the playlist contents below.
Posted on Nov 08, 2022
The Maricopa Pollinator Pathway is a new initiative of the Maricopa Native Seed Library which helps to build interconnected pollinator habitat. The Pathway also offers a free pollinator habitat certification program for Maricopa County and other low & intermediate desert areas of Arizona (under 3000 feet elevation).
Danielle Carlock, the seed library’s founder, recently gave a presentation about the Maricopa Pollinator Pathway to the Phoenix Chapter. The presentation recording is available on the Arizona Native Plant Society’s YouTube channel. Watch to learn how to create pollinator habitat in your outdoor space using native plants. Then, certify your habitat with the Maricopa Pollinator Pathway!
The Phoenix Chapter assisted in the development of the habitat certification criteria. So, we are excited to help promote the Maricopa Pollinator Pathway and increase the number of pollinator-friendly gardens in Arizona. We encourage you to spread word about the program to your family, friends, and neighbors!
See what your chapter has been up to!