Growing your results…
The tropical rainforest gets the conservation headlines. The redwood forest inspires reverence. Wetlands have legal protection. But the North American temperate grassland — the tallgrass and mixed-grass prairies that once stretched from Canada to Texas, from Ohio to the Rockies — is the continent's most endangered and least publicized ecosystem.
Central Grasslands researcher Tanya Davidson at Colorado State University put it plainly: "Grasslands are understudied, underfunded and underappreciated, and they have an important story to be told."
That story starts with plants.
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Before European settlement, North America's Central Grasslands supported millions of bison, pronghorn, and elk, along with wolves and grizzly bears — an ecological density that rivals Africa's Serengeti. The region has since been converted to a highly domesticated landscape of crops, livestock, fences, and pavement.
The losses are staggering:
The 2024 North American Grasslands Conservation Act, introduced in the U.S. Senate, identified temperate grasslands as among the most at-risk ecosystems on the continent. The Central Grasslands Roadmap and the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies' Western Grasslands Initiative have designated grassland restoration as a top conservation priority — but most of the work remains undone.
The keystone plants of these ecosystems have largely disappeared alongside the ecosystem itself. Restoring them — even in yards, gardens, rain gardens, and roadside plantings — contributes to the connected habitat network that grassland insects and birds need.
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Grassland keystone plants have different ecological profiles than forest keystone plants. In a forest, the highest-value plants are overwhelmingly trees — oaks, cherries, willows — that support hundreds of caterpillar species each. In grasslands, the keystone layer shifts downward to flowering perennials and shrubs, with a few tree genera present at margins and riparian areas.
This is ecologically significant. Prairie perennials support fewer caterpillar species individually than forest trees, but they are incomparable resources for pollen specialist bees — the 15–60% of North American native bee species that can only eat pollen from specific plant genera. Many of these specialist bees evolved alongside prairie plants over millions of years and have no substitute.
According to NWF data for the Great Plains ecoregion, the top genera for specialist bee pollen support are:
The top performer — native sunflowers — supports 89 specialist bee species in the Great Plains. That's a number that approaches oaks for caterpillar support. If you're in grassland country and you're not growing native sunflowers, you're missing the single most valuable planting decision you can make.
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Native perennial sunflowers are not the large-headed annual cut flowers sold at garden centers. They're spreading, multi-stemmed perennials with smaller flowers that open over several weeks — maximizing their availability to the specialized bees that depend on them.
The sunflower bee (Svastra obliqua) collects sunflower pollen almost exclusively, covered in specialized branched hairs adapted specifically to harvest it. Without native sunflowers in the landscape, this bee has no breeding population. The same is true of Melissodes agilis, Diadasia enavata, and dozens of other Helianthus-specialist bees.
Best species:
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In the Great Plains, goldenrod supports 71 caterpillar species and 56 specialist bee species — second only to native sunflowers for specialist bee support in this ecoregion. Andrena asteris, Colletes simulans, Melissodes desponsus, and others cannot complete their life cycles without it.
Goldenrod is often dismissed as a weed or blamed for hay fever (the actual culprit is ragweed, which blooms simultaneously). In prairie gardens, it functions as the structural backbone of the fall-blooming layer — no other plant can replace it for late-season pollinator support.
Best species:
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Asters form the other half of the late-season keystone pair with goldenrods. Together, these two genera sustain the majority of the late-summer and fall pollinator community in grassland ecoregions. In the Great Plains, asters support 43 specialist bee species.
Asters are also the larval host for pearl crescent butterflies, which use them exclusively. Their bloom timing — late August through October — fills the critical late-season window after most wildflowers have finished.
Best species:
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Gumweed is one of the most important and least celebrated keystone plants of the short-grass and mixed-grass prairie. In the Great Plains, Grindelia supports 68 pollen specialist bees — more than goldenrod and asters individually. It's a colonizer of disturbed ground, dry roadsides, and overgrazed areas that can establish in conditions where most wildflowers fail.
The flowers bloom in mid- to late summer, bridging the gap between spring wildflowers and fall goldenrods. Its sticky, resinous flower heads produce the pollen that specialist bees like Diadasia enavata and multiple Andrena species depend on.
For restoration of difficult, compacted, or disturbed grassland sites, gumweed is often the first keystone plant to establish and begin rebuilding pollinator communities.
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Closely related to coneflowers and black-eyed Susans, native Ratibida species are among the most distinctively prairie-adapted of the grassland keystones. Their drooping yellow ray petals around a central cone are instantly recognizable, and their tall, wiry stems sway in the wind above the grass matrix.
Research published in the Journal of Applied Ecology by Harmon-Threatt and colleagues identified Ratibida as one of the four most important keystone plants for bee communities in tallgrass prairie restoration — alongside Dalea purpurea, Amorpha canescens, and Zizia aurea.
Ratibida supports 14 specialist bee species in the Great Plains, including several Andrena and Melissodes species that collect its pollen almost exclusively. It's also an excellent caterpillar host for several prairie-adapted butterfly species.
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One of the most underplanted keystone plants of the tallgrass prairie, purple prairie clover blooms in midsummer with cylindrical spikes of deep magenta-purple flowers. It supports 12 specialist bee species — a high number for a perennial — including Andrena mining bees and Nomia alkali bees that rely on legume pollen.
Like all legumes, purple prairie clover also fixes atmospheric nitrogen through root nodules, improving soil fertility in lean prairie soils and benefiting neighboring plants in restoration projects.
Dalea purpurea is drought-tolerant, thrives in full sun and well-drained soils, and rarely needs supplemental water once established. White prairie clover (D. candida) is closely related and provides complementary bloom timing slightly earlier in summer.
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No grassland restoration is complete without the grasses. Native prairie grasses are not merely a backdrop — they are the physical structure that makes everything else possible: overwintering habitat for ground-nesting bees, nesting material for birds, and the matrix through which forbs emerge and bloom.
Big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) is the signature species of the tallgrass prairie, once covering much of the Midwest in stands 6–8 feet tall. Its three-pronged seed head (giving it the colloquial name "turkey foot") is a food source for grassland sparrows through winter.
Little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) is more compact (2–4 feet), with brilliant russet fall color and fluffy white seed heads that persist well into winter. It's one of the most beautiful native grasses for garden-scale use, and its fine structure provides ideal overwintering habitat for ground-nesting bees.
Sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula) is the state grass of Texas and a primary grass of the mixed-grass prairie. Lower growing than bluestems, it seeds out attractively in late summer and is highly drought-tolerant.
Neither big bluestem nor little bluestem support many caterpillar species individually, but their presence in the landscape is essential for the complete grassland community to function — as structure, seed source, and nesting substrate.
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Gardeners in the Eastern Temperate Forests ecoregion often overlook prairie plants, assuming they're only relevant to the Midwest. But much of the historic eastern landscape included grassland barrens, meadows, and savannas — and the keystone plants of those habitats are native to the East as well.
In eastern ecoregions, the grassland-appropriate keystones that overlap with high ecological value include:
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A few principles guide successful temperate grassland plantings:
Plant in masses. Prairie plants evolved in communities, not as individuals. Single specimens are often browsed, shaded out, or fail to attract pollinators. Plant a minimum of 3–5 of each keystone perennial, ideally in adjacent drifts.
Start with grasses. Native prairie grasses establish the structural matrix that makes forbs perform correctly. Plant little bluestem or sideoats grama first; add flowering species into the grass matrix.
Tolerate the first-year "weedy" look. Prairie plantings are often dominated by weeds in year one while native plants establish root systems. Year two and three bring the blooms. Don't pull what you don't recognize — it might be a native.
Avoid soil amendments. Prairie plants evolved in lean soils. Adding compost or fertilizer encourages grass and weed competition while often producing lanky, less-blooming natives. Plant directly into existing soil and let them establish on their own terms.
Use our Native Plant Finder to find grassland keystone species matched to your specific zip code, filter by ecoregion and growing conditions, and locate nursery sources in your state.