嘿嘿视频

Spreading Native Plant Seeds for the Future of Urban Landscapes

嘿嘿视频 Partnering on Project to Give Seeds to Locals

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California golden poppies at 嘿嘿视频
California golden poppies at 嘿嘿视频. (Karin Higgins/嘿嘿视频)

Quick Summary

  • People can pick up seeds at various locations

There might soon be more native California poppies, lupines and sunflowers popping up along streets and sidewalks in the region. The University of California, Davis, Department of Human Ecology has teamed up with local nonprofit Miridae Living Labs, which uses native plants and insects as tools for education and research, to launch the a community initiative that aims to find out which native plant seeds are best at dispersing in cities, roadsides, alleyways and other places they may naturally fall.

The project is the brainchild of Haven Kiers, assistant professor in landscape architecture and environmental design, and Billy Krimmel, who earned his doctoral degree in ecology from 嘿嘿视频 and is co-founder of They invite volunteers from Davis, West Sacramento and Sacramento to drop small piles of native seed mixes in random spaces where they live or work and monitor which species succeed and under what conditions.

鈥淭here are some species we try to seed in gardens, and they fail. But then you see them on the sides of the highway just flourishing,鈥 Krimmel said. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 up with that? That鈥檚 the basic question we鈥檙e trying to answer.鈥

Studying questions like that can help inform the landscaping industry鈥檚 decisions about what native plants to use and where to put them for the most ecological benefit. Krimmel says sharing the collected data can also be useful for local public works departments and state agencies such as the California Department of Transportation, or Caltrans.

鈥淭he future of a lot of habitat restoration in urban areas is roads,鈥 Krimmel said. 鈥淐altrans can鈥檛 go install all this irrigation and plants, there鈥檚 no budget for that. But, if you had a couple pounds of seeds per mile, suddenly it becomes a completely different value proposition. But we must know which ones can survive in that context and don鈥檛 need to be trimmed, pruned, fertilized and watered. Intentionally, it鈥檚 just a pile of seed.鈥

The seed packets that will be handed out to participants and plopped around town include yarrow, California poppy, tarweed, turkey mullein, lupine, sunflower and clarkia plants. Krimmel and Kiers are excited that the project will also raise awareness about the importance of California native plants, which tend to require less water and no pesticides, and promote biodiversity.

Mobile nursery on a truck.
Miridae Mobile Nursery is one location where people can get seeds. (Haven Kiers, Department of Human Ecology)

鈥淎ny native species of plant has at least one or two plant bugs that only survive on that plant,鈥 Krimmel said. 鈥淥ne of the exciting things about this project is that people will learn how to identify some of the common native wild plants in the area that they may otherwise think is a weed. A lot of stuff that people walk by and dismiss, they鈥檒l now have a new appreciation for.鈥

Krimmel and Kiers conducted a small test run of the project last year and dropped seeds around 50-plus spots, including on campus. According to their observations, they say one of the most successful locations for flowers and plant growth was found in cracks in asphalt away from manicured gardens and lawns.

鈥淲e did a few around campus and what was really interesting was that within the first month we got all the seedlings 鈥 they were there, and it was exciting,鈥 Kiers explained. 鈥淎nd then I came back a second time and all of it had been removed, which is part of the culture of maintenance. So, it鈥檚 cool that the places where these plants survived and thrived were the ones where it was completely hands-off.鈥

Tarweed
Tarweed thriving in asphalt near I-80 in Davis, (Billy Krimmel, Miridae Living Labs)

Krimmel and Kiers say they鈥檝e already gotten some sign-ups and hope to have close to 2,000 people join the project. Those interested can sign up online and are asked to share photos and notes about what they observe. Kiers says the project is designed to be simple so that people of all ages can participate.

鈥淭he idea is that anyone can do it 鈥 adults, kids, teachers, college students,鈥 Kiers said. 鈥淎nd we want people to be like 鈥榟eck yea, I want to do this because it鈥檚 really fun.鈥欌

People can arrange to pick up seed packets at a couple of local spots including in Davis and the in Sacramento. Seeds can also be picked up at the , a curbside native plant pop-up shop. Krimmel, along with Miridae鈥檚 design team, came up with the idea to convert a box truck into the native plant nursery on wheels, offering about 30 native plant species. Krimmel says events with the truck are held about two to three days a week at local businesses, and community members can  neighborhood events free of charge.

While Krimmel and Kiers are hopeful they will gather valuable information from the community during the Seed Pile Project, for them it鈥檚 all about promoting education and having fun.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 the dream of this collaborative group,鈥 Krimmel said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to link ecology to landscape and to education.鈥

Media Resources

Media Contacts:

  • A. Haven Kiers, Human Ecology, ahkiers@ucdavis.edu
  • Billy Krimmel, Miridae Living Labs, billy@miridae.com
  • Tiffany Dobbyn, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, tadobbyn@ucdavis.edu

Additional Resources:

  • High-resolution photos

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