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 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.
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!
Seeking native plants to use in landscaping?
Native Landscaping Plants
View our Chapter’s Plant List for Metro Phoenix to learn which plants are local to our area. 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.
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.
Seasonal Plant Sales
Several local organizations hold desert plant sale fundraisers in the Spring and Fall. We’ll update this announcement if/when additional native plant sales are scheduled in the metro Phoenix area.
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 – The public may obtain up to 3 free seed packets per month. Available at several Maricopa Community Colleges libraries.
Glendale Public Library: Seed Library – Library card holders may obtain up to 3 free seed packets every 7 days. Mostly garden seeds, but some wildflower seeds are available.
If you feel there’s a local nursery, native plant fundraiser, or seed supplier we should add to our list, please let us know!
Participate in a local nature walk or educational event!
Many local organizations host free or low-cost seasonal nature walks, interpretive hikes, gardening classes, and educational activities with a focus on native plants & habitats. Learn more by clicking on the links below.
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.
Contribute photos and information about your wildlife sightings to have them identified by other iNaturalist users. “Research grade” observations also contribute to scientific research.
Observe plants as part of this national program to help scientist understand how plants are responding to long-term changes in climate. Or, join their Milkweeds and Monarchs project which is studying whether monarch butterflies prefer to lay eggs on non-flowering milkweed plants.
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.
Help RiversEdge West track the spread of tamarisk beetles (Diorhabda spp.) across the western United States and Mexico. Data is used for an annual distribution map that notes presence and absence of tamarisk beetles.
If you see milkweed plants or monarch butterflies, eggs, or caterpillars while outdoors, take a photo and submit your sighting to this regional project.
Participate in their Land Cover project to help scientists create better maps. Or, join the Trees project by taking height and circumference measurements.
Access digitized natural history data online to help transcribe and decipher field notebooks, photographs, museum labels, and data sheets from around the world.
Chapter News
Invasive Species Alert: Fountain Grass
Posted on Apr 21, 2021
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 the spread of Fountain grass. The timing of its release coincides with the spring flowering of Fountain grass throughout Central and Southern Arizona.
Many Echinocereus, including Engelmann’s hedgehog or Strawberry cactus (E.engelmannii), produce a very delicious fruit reported to taste a lot like strawberries (Eppel, 2012). The tiny red fruit, in keeping with the stature of the diminutive Engelmann’s hedgehog, comes from a 4 to 12 inch tall cylindrical cactus with 8 to 14 ribs. The inch-long fruit can be circular to egg-shaped with a fleshy white pulp. As the fruit reaches maturity, the deciduous spines fall off (Tibbits, 2020).
In contrast, its large 2 to 3 inch wide tubular flowers seem oversized. The brilliant flowers blossom from April to May ranging in color from bright magenta to pale pink, but only last for 5 days opening in the morning and closing at night.
Photo credit: Lisa Rivera
Native to the southwestern US and northern Mexico, this slow-growing succulent’s name is due to short, spiny stems which resemble hedgehogs. Their 2 inch curved radial spines may be red, yellow, white, or gray. Protection from rodents and other herbivores is provided by the sharp spines, sometimes covering the whole plant. The spines also give shade which keeps the stem at an optimal temperature. To reduce water loss, the cactus produces a waxy coat which is heaviest on the plant section receiving the most sun. In the evenings, Hedgehog cacti open their stomata (pores) to perform an oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange (Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, 2010).
Photo credit: Lisa Rivera
Found on hillsides, desert plains, and scrubland in generally dry, sunny locations, this perennial appears from sea level to 5,000 feet. They form medium-sized clusters or colonies with as many as 50 to 60 stems and spread 3 feet wide. The stems of these very common cacti are initially upright but with old age may fall to the ground and grow laterally.
Photo credit: Lisa Rivera
At least 8 varieties of E. engelmannii are found in the Sonoran Desert and in garden nurseries as well. These pretty little succulents can be propagated from seeds sown in the spring or offsets grown from a base plant. To thrive, potted or wild, a Hedgehog cactus needs nearly full sun for 6 or more hours daily and good drainage (VanZile, 2021). Overwatering is likely to produce root rot. If potted, a small dose of diluted fertilizer once or twice a month will maintain a healthy plant.
As a food plant, hedgehog cacti have been used by indigenous peoples of the Southwest. Ripe fruit has been eaten raw and dried for future use, prepared as a sweet snack for children, and converted to a jam or jelly. The inner stem, described as a survival food, is best eaten boiled or roasted.
The Hedgehog cactus has additional properties valuable to desert dwellers and others. The soothing topical qualities of the inner stem can be applied to burns including sunburn. Taken internally, reports suggest that the inner stem also has potential to lower blood sugar and cholesterol levels (Kane, 2020). Other than the prickly thorns, no cautions exist for the fruit or stems. The biggest challenge presented by the Hedgehog cactus is to find the ripe fruit before the birds and rodents have a special strawberry-flavored treat!
Photo credit: Lisa Rivera
Sources:
Eppel, A. (2012). Plants of Arizona: A Field Guide. Rowan and Littlefield: Helena, Montana.
Kane, C.W. (2020). Sonoran Desert Food Plants. Lincoln Town Press: USA.
During early spring, the young Cirsium neomexicanum has already grown about 1 foot on its way to 6 feet in late summer. This prickly member of the Sunflower family (Asteraceae) is often considered a weed, unwanted, and dangerous. Before looking for a scythe, let’s take some time to evaluate this native desert plant.
Photo credit: Lisa Rivera
Common names for C. neomexicanum include New Mexico thistle, Desert thistle, Foss thistle, Lavender thistle, and Powderpuff thistle (Southwestern Desert Flora, 2020). It is scattered throughout most of Arizona as well as CA, CO, NM, NV, UT, and northwest Mexico, residing in multiple habitats, such as plains, hillsides, washes, roadsides, and even urban alleys.
From March to September, it produces pink, purple, lavender, or white fragrant and showy flowers up to 3 inches. The flower head is composed of many small flowers (florets) surrounded by modified or specialized leaves (brachts). The lower, outer brachts point downward, while the upper, inner bracts point upward and are somewhat twisted.
Photo credit: Lisa Rivera
True thistles have spines along the leaf margins (Sivinski, 2016). New Mexico thistle’s spiny green or greenish-gray leaves have the lobes arranged on either side of a central axis like a feather (pinnately lobed) and can be up to 7 inches long.
Arizona and New Mexico each have 19 species in the genus Cirsium (Southwest Desert Flora, 2020). Native thistles support a wide variety of native pollinator and plant-eating insects, such as bees, butterflies, and moths by providing important habitat and food sources. Because native Cirsium spp. can be annual, biennial, or perennial, their nectar can help support pollinators year-round. In addition to drawing nectar and pollen from the flowers, many insects feed on the leaves, stems, and seeds.
Also, many songbirds are attracted to thistle seeds. A symbiotic relationship exists between American goldfinches and native thistles. Seeds and thistle down are food and nest building components critical to the bird’s survival. The timing of seed production and thistle down is related directly to the goldfinch breeding season. Because thistles are late bloomers and American goldfinches breed late in the summer, these birds have an abundance of seeds and thistle down to line their nests (Deane, n.d.). In return, the birds spread the thistle seed to additional areas.
Like its cousin the artichoke, New Mexico thistle is edible! Thistle stalks and taproots are sources of food for humans, but harvesting time is critical. Before the flowering stalks emerge, the taproots of young first-year plants can be dug up. At this early stage, the roots are tender and can be eaten raw or chopped up and added to soups or stews. Their texture has been described as crisp and crunchy with an almost nutty flavor. The stalks can also be consumed, but must be harvested when they are only about 1 to 2 feet high. (Beyond about 2 feet high the stalks are too fibrous and tough to eat.) Stalks can be peeled and eaten fresh or as a cooked vegetable. No significant medicinal uses for New Mexico thistle have been documented (Kane, 2020).
Photo credit: Lisa Rivera
Most southwestern native thistles, including the New Mexico thistle, are non-aggressive and non-invasive (Karr, 2017). Native Cirsium spp. pose no fire risk and do not destructively displace native plants, thus remaining in equilibrium with other native flora. However, native thistles do reduce opportunity for invasive non-native thistles to populate a location.
Despite their benefits, native thistles are either knowingly or unknowingly killed simply because they are considered spiny “weeds.” In some areas, native thistle species are in danger of being complete eradicated. So, please, “stop before you chop!”
