Chapter Meetings & Events
Our events are announced at least 2 weeks in advance to our email list subscribers. To join our email list, please contact aznpsphoenix@gmail.com.
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.
We’ll begin this virtual meeting with 10 minutes of networking and socializing, enabling participants to seek tips and recommendations from members on topics related to native plants. Next, we’ll share Chapter announcements.
Then, we’ll discuss the book The Hidden Life of Trees: What they Feel, How they Communicate by Peter Wohlleben. If you would like to discuss the book, please obtain a copy and read it prior to our meeting date.
To attend the meeting, register in advance via Zoom.
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. Due to precautionary measures currently in place, please contact a nursery directly to determine if they have special operating hours or procedures.
In addition, several organizations hold desert plant sale fundraisers in the Spring and Fall. We’ll update this announcement when local native plant sales take place.
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.
Greenway Drive Library – A Phoenix Chapter member offers free native plants and wildflower seeds as part of a Little Free Library in front of their home in Tempe.
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!
Fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum) is a popular landscaping plant, but a dangerous invasive weed. Its seeds easily spread and invade roadsides, washes, and natural areas. As a result, Fountain grass pushes out native plants and wildlife, disrupts water flow and availability, and increases the risk and severity of wildfires. Therefore, it was listed as an Arizona noxious weed in early 2020 and is no longer sold by the nursery trade.
The Arizona Native Plant Society, along with several partners, created an informational pamphlet to help the community learn how to identify and control Fountain grass. Please download, read, and share this important information with others!
The Fountain grass pamphlet is available in two formats. The digital format is best for viewing electronically. The printable format is best for viewing as a tri-fold pamphlet. In addition, there is a Spanish version of the pamphlet.
Fountain grass is a popular landscaping plant, but a dangerous invasive weed. If you have it in your landscape, please remove it.
| Name | Role | Contact |
| Lisa Rivera | President | aznpsphoenix@gmail.com |
| Pam McMillie | Vice President | |
| Danielle Carlock | Treasurer | |
| Kathy Balman | Secretary |
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.
An iNaturalist project focused on plants found in urban environments. There are also monthly EcoQuest challenges that focus on certain species. Add your photo observations to the project. Or, if plant identification is your superpower, help to ID what others saw!
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 Jul 27, 2022
The Summer 2022 edition of Plant Press Arizona is now available to view or download for free from our website.
Read to learn about The Desert Legume Program, plants of the Arizona strip and the Kaibab Plateau, secrets of the Grand Canyon, and more!
Past editions of Plant Press Arizona are also available to view or download from our online archive.
Posted on Jun 20, 2022
Does “flattop buckwheat” summon visions of stacks of pancakes dripping in delicious honey? If so, your mouthwatering vision is partially correct. Flattop buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum var. polifolium), also known as Eastern Mojave buckwheat, is a low, rounded, fast-growing shrub not to be confused with common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum), a domestic crop cultivated for edible seeds.
Across the entire Southwest over 355 members of the buckwheat family (Polygonaceae), often difficult to distinguish structurally, find their home in sunny coarse and well drained soils along washes and rocky slopes. In the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts, E. fasciculatum is the most common buckwheat.
Although lots of Flattop buckwheat decorate the desert, this miniature evergreen fully grown is usually only 1 foot tall by 2 feet wide with typical desert gray-green foliage. Arriving in late spring, clusters of flat-topped white flowers gradually turn pink in summer, then rust colored in fall.
The ‘B’ in buckwheat is for butterflies, bees, and birds. The slightly fragrant flowers are a wildly popular lure for several butterflies, most notably the Mormon metalmark (Apodemia mormo), the Rocky Mountain dotted-blue (Euphilotes ancilla) and the Lupine blue (Icaricia lupini). These butterflies also use Flattop buckwheat as a host plant for their caterpillars.
A favorite of bees, native and nonnative, this pollinator plant provides a good source of nectar. Luckily for humans, bees use these plants predominantly as a basis for tasty honey. Not only is this honey healthy for our diets, but also for the economy. E. fasciculatum is the principal honey-producing plant in southern California. When other flowers have long gone to seed, flattop buckwheat still supplies food for hungry birds due to its extensive growing season.
In fact, some farmers use buckwheat for a dual purpose, making honey and as a form of integrated pest management. When planted next to crops or in cultivated gardens, their nectar attracts beneficial insects that in turn reduce pests. Pest reduction means less need for chemicals in our flower beds and vegetables. Flattop buckwheat can also serve as a ground cover crop, helping to improve soil health plus providing crops protection from soilborne pathogens.
Wild E. fasciculatum is a low-profile desert plant, often overlooked and underappreciated. If you want to enhance and create an almost year-round pollinator garden, raise Flattop buckwheat… a low maintenance, easy-to-grow plant that sweetens the pot for butterflies, bees, birds, and possibly your buckwheat pancakes.
SEINnet. Eriogonum fasciculatum. https://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/taxa/index.php?taxon=3474&clid=8
SEINnet. Eriogonum fasciculatum var. polifolium. https://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/taxa/index.php?taxauthid=1&taxon=12915&clid=15#
Southwest Desert Flora. (2017). Eriogonum fasciculatum, flat-top buckwheat. http://southwestdesertflora.com/WebsiteFolders/All_Species/Polygonaceae/Eriogonum%20fasciculatum,%20Flat-top%20Buckwheat.html
Xerces Society. (n.d.). Who are the pollinators? https://www.xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/about-pollinators
Posted on Jun 04, 2022
The Summer 2022 edition of Happenings is now available! Download a copy to learn more about activities of Arizona Native Plant Society chapters around the state.
See what your chapter has been up to!
