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.
Additional Events
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.
Join our virtual community!
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!
Join in on a spring wildflower walk!
Several local organizations host free or low-cost seasonal wildflower walks, interpretive hikes, and educational activities. Learn more by clicking on the links below.
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.
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.
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.
If you feel there’s a local nursery, native plant fundraiser, or seed supplier we should add to our list, please let us know!
Additional Chapter Announcements
Invasive Species Alert: Stinknet
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 Stinknetpamphlet, which is available in English and Spanish. Please download, read, and share this important information with others!
Stinknet plant flowering. Photo credit: Lisa Rivera
If you are interested in volunteer activities related to restoration, invasive species control, gardening, conservation, or scientific research, we recommend contacting the following organizations.
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.
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.
Access digitized natural history data online to help transcribe and decipher field notebooks, photographs, museum labels, and data sheets from around the world.
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.
Mormon metalmark on Flattop buckwheat bloom.
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. fasciculatumis 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.
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.
Arizona’s Desert Tortoise Adoption Program
Posted on May 23, 2022
Did you know that Arizona has a Desert Tortoise adoption program?
This was the topic of the Phoenix Chapter’s May meeting. Kellie Tharpe of the Arizona Game and Fish Department gave a feature presentation. The recording is available to watch any time on the AZNPS YouTube Channel.
Watch the video to learn about the adoption program, including how to create tortoise habitat in your yard using native plants!
