Storefront Pollinator Planters
Year: 2022
Location: Chicago, IL
Status: Built
Hinterlands Team: Conor O’Shea
These locally-sourced native plant combinations create valuable pollinator habitat.
With the global insect population in steep decline, finding novel ways to create habitat for invertebrates is one small step we can take to address this alarming trend. These commercial storefront planters incorporate native plant communities associated with the Central USA Plains EPA Level II Ecoregion into two mixes: dry prairie and mesic prairie.
Unlike many commercial planters that incorporate showy exotic annuals that provide few pollen or nectar resources for insects, these planters provide habitat for a range of pollinators. For example, the Foxglove Beardtongue (Penstamon digitalis) is the larval host plant for numerous butterflies and moths, while the Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) is the larval host plant for the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus). Plants in each mix have overlapping bloom times from May to October to ensure pollen and nectar availability for pollinators, including hummingbirds and generalist pollinators, including native bees.
