NIU Grounds is embracing sustainable landscaping designs through the implementation of native perennial garden beds.
Native perennial plants featuring plants tolerant of full to partial sunlight, drought, and salt spray. Plants in this bed were seeded, using a mix specifically designed to grow at shorter heights, while attracting pollinators. Seeds were spread in the winter of 2025/2026. This bed has a mix of wildflowers and grasses, including:
- Agastache foeniculum (Anise Hyssop)
- Allium stellatum (Prairie Onion)
- Anemone cylindrica (Thimbleweed)
- Anemone virginiana (Tall Thimbleweed)
- Antennaria neglecta (Prairie Pussytoes)
- Aquilegia canadensis (Columbine)
- Asclepias tuberosa (Butterfly Weed)
- Asclepias verticillata (Whorled Milkweed)
- Baptisia bracteata (Cream Wild Indigo)
- Bouteloua curtipendula (Side-oats Grama)
- Bouteloua gracilis (Blue Grama)
- Bromus kalmii (Prairie Brome)
- Camassia scilloides (Wild Hyacinth)
- Carex brevior (Plains Oval Sedge)
- Chamaecrista fasciculata (Partridge Pea)
- Coreopsis lanceolata (Lance-leaf Coreopsis)
- Dalea candida (White Prairie Clover)
- Dalea purpurea (Purple Prairie Clover)
- Echinacea angustifolia (Narrow-leaved Coneflower)
- Eragrostis spectabilis (Purple Love Grass)
- Gentiana flavida (Cream Gentian)
- Heuchera richardsonii (Prairie Alumroot)
- Juncus dudleyi (Dudley's Rush)
- Koeleria macrantha (June Grass)
- Liatris punctata (Dotted Blazing Star)
- Lupinus perennis subsp. perennis (Sundial Lupine)
- Monarda punctata (Spotted Bee Balm)
- Pedicularis canadensis (Wood Betony)
- Penstemon grandiflorus (Large-flowered Beardtongue)
- Penstemon hirsutus (Hairy Beardtongue)
- Phlox pilosa (Prairie Phlox)
- Primula meadia (Midland Shooting Star)
- Pycnanthemum verticillatum var. pilosum (Hairy Mountain Mint)
- Ruellia humilis (Wild Petunia)
- Schizachyrium scoparium (Little Bluestem)
- Solidago nemoralis (Old Field Goldenrod)
- Sporobolus heterolepis (Prairie Dropseed)
- Symphyotrichum oolentangiense (Sky Blue Aster)
- Symphyotrichum turbinellum (Prairie Aster)
- Taenidia integerrima (Yellow Pimpernel)
- Tradescantia ohiensis (Ohio Spiderwort)
- Verbena stricta (Hoary Vervain)
- Zizia aptera (Heart-leaf Golden Alexanders)