When planning your landscapes and gardens this year make sure to consider using Indiana native keystone trees and plants. Keystone plants are native plants critical to the food web and necessary for many wildlife species to complete their life cycle. Without keystone plants in the landscape, butterflies, native bees, and birds will not thrive. 96% of our terrestrial birds rely on insects supported by keystone plants. Make sure to keep these plants in mind when building your Indiana Native landscapes.
Here is a list of the top 10 flowering perennial keystone plants by Genus for Indiana with some examples of plants in that Genus
- Solidago – Stiff leaf goldenrod , Atlantic Goldenrod
- Symphyotrichum – Blue wood aster, Smooth Aster
- Helianthus – Woodland sunflower
- Rudbeckia – Black-eyed Susan, Green-headed coneflower
- Heterotheca – Camphorweed
- Grindelia – Curlycup gumweed
- Coreopsis – Lanceleaf coreopsis, large flower coreopsis
- Bidens – Devil’s beggartick, Small Beggartick
- Verbesina – Wingstem
If you are looking for the a list of the top Keystone Trees, Shrub or would like to know the Top 30 Native Keystone plants for butterflies/moths and bees you can find a complete list by region here https://www.nwf.org/Garden-for-Wildlife/About/Native-Plants/keystone-plants-by-ecoregion
Here is a good video explaining keystone plants and why they are important