[PCA] native plants for cities, stormwater management

Mon Dec 13 10:02:14 CST 2004

Yellow flag would solve one problem while creating another.  It is
considered invasive in a number of states.

Careful with wetland terms....cattail is not a bog plant, but a
freshwater marsh plant.  Bog plants tend to be slow-growing and would
not fit the waterway environment you have.

  _____  

From: maryann whitman [mailto:maryannwhitman at comcast.net] 
Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2004 9:26 PM
To: native-plants at lists.plantconservation.org
Subject: RE: [PCA] native plants for cities, stormwater management

What is the Center for Sustainable Resources? What is your position
there Fred?

M. Whitman

At 09:09 PM 12/8/2004 Wednesday, Center for Sustainable Resources wrote:

I have worked with the process you speak of quite a bit at times. In
fact I use natural vegetation to biofilter our aquaculture sites.
Probably the easiest and most dependable plant you can use for this is
the cattail. They are commonly used on mine sites now because they are
so good at binding many substances. Bog plants in general are very good
at this. as they burn up bicarbonates when the sun shines they collect
metals in their root systems. Yellow Flag( japanesenaturalized) or blue
flag native but not much different are also good. Some of the most
problematic plants as far as growing over the entire waterway are the
native ones. Stay away from anything viny. Lotus and lilly are good but
need to be tamed now and then. If you are dealing with a sewage
treatment system bullfrog tadpoles are good for controling bacteria but
you need large numbers. Fred Hays

From: Louisa Rogoff Thompson <louisathompson at erols.com>
To: NativePlantseast <native-plants at lists.plantconservation.org>,
WorthleyBotany <WorthleyBotany at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [PCA] native plants for cities, stormwater management
Date: Tue, 07 Dec 2004 11:53:47 -0500

I'm looking for information about native plants adapted to various kinds
of stressful environments, particularly salt and heavy metals.  It's my
firm belief that plants can take care of soil and water better than
facilities made of concrete and other man-made materials.  And I prefer
to use native plants, because they are unlikely to turn out to be
invasive, and because they are more likely than exotics to form
collaborative relationships with soil organisms and above-ground
wildlife.

I'm currently working on a grad school project to design a landscape for
a vacant lot which will divert stormwater from the street into the lot
to be filtered and slowed down.   Most vacant lots previously had
buildings on them, which means they now have fill dirt, and infiltration
facilities are not permitted on fill.  So the water has to be returned
to the storm drain system, but some will evaporate and the rest will be
returned slowly, reducing the volume of fast-flowing water during the
storm.

The man at Baltimore's Dept. of Public Works who issues permits for this
kind of thing says a solution would be very valuable, and could be used
on many vacant lots throughout the city.  If I can get this to work, it
could have a very significant impact.  Did you know that much of
Baltimore's stormwater is piped directly into the Inner Harbor?  And it
carries cadmium, copper, chromium, lead, and other heavy metals, mostly
from tires, some from diesel exhaust, and some from old lead paint.  And
road salt, in winter.

If you have seen plants either survive or be harmed by road salt, air
pollution (e.g. from bus exhaust at a bus stop), or heavy metals (e.g.,
lead paint chips in the soil), I'd like to know about it.

Also, if you know of published information please tell me.  I have
Dirr's Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, which has this kind of
information for many trees and shrubs.  Is there something comparable
for herbaceous plants?  I also have Md. Dept. of Environment's
Stormwater Design Manual, which has a long list of plants, indicating
tolerance to salt and pollution.  The only plant listed as tolerant to
both is Eastern white pine.  Most likely this is a list of known
tolerance, i.e., no check mark means no knowledge, not no tolerance.

Your help will be much appreciated.

Louisa Thompson
Institute of Architecture and Planning
Morgan State University
Baltimore, MD

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William C. Stringer
Forage Agronomist &
Native Plant Enthusiast
Clemson University

Entomology, Soils and Plant Science
279 P&AS Bldg
PO Box 0315
Clemson, SC  29634

864 656 3527  Voice
864 656 3443  FAX

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