Flowers are for more than people! Many species depend on the flowers in our landscapes in order to live, including bees, butterflies, and all sorts of bugs. Obviously, a classic lawn isn’t going to offer much in the way of food for any of these species. By introducing flowers into our lawns, whether it’s dandelions or prairie flowers, we can help pollinators thrive!
You might have heard of No Mow May or other projects that support weeds flowering in existing lawns. While something flowering is better than nothing, both the literature and our research show that native plants are the best option for native pollinators.
In order to document what pollinators prefer and who is visiting each type of plant, our research assistants do A LOT of field work watching and counting bees. It’s one thing to say native bees prefer native flowers, but a whole lot more work to say that only 15 types of bees were seen visiting lawns while over 30 types of bees were seen in the same period of time in prairie.
Chicagoland has over 178 species of native bees, 111 species of native butterflies, 113 species of native flower flies, and many more bats, moths, wasps, and hummingbirds besides. Keeping those species alive requires us to make sure they have food sources that provide the correct nutrition.
Rethinking Lawns 