Check out the new native plants along the Banks!

As you pass by the planting areas between the Chestnut Street and Market Street bridges and the northern entrance to the Schuylkill Banks Boardwalk, look for Salvia lyrata (aka Lyreleaf sage - part of the mint family), Aster laevis (Smooth aster), Rudbeckia hirta (Black-eyed susan), Itea virginica (Virginia sweetspire), Schizachyrium scoparium (Little bluestem) and Eragrostis spectabilis (Purple love grass).  Many of these native plants were grown from seeds just up the trail at PPR’s Greenland Nursery. If you haven’t heard about the important work happening at Greenland Nursey, check out this post for more information.

These native plants are here on the Banks thanks to PPR’s Plants Make Positive Places (P3) program – a seed and plant sharing program which aims to increase native plants in the City’s park system with locally-sourced plant material.  Collecting seeds from the park system and redistributing the plants throughout the park system started in 2015 – learn about the P3 program here. 

We are excited to be part of the P3 program and look forward to sharing seeds from these new native plants with other parks!