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Learn about the beautiful plants in the rooftop garden at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library.
Whorled Milkweed
Botanical Name: Asclepias Verticillata
Native Location: North America
Description: Single-stemmed, unbranched perennial, 1-3 ft. tall. Narrow, linear leaves whorled along the stem. Small, greenish-white flowers occur in flat-topped clusters on the upper part of the stem.
Bloom Timeframe: June - September
True Lavender
Botanical Name: Lavandula Angustifolia
Additional Names: English Lavender, Lavender, Narrow-Leaved Lavender
Native Location: Mediterranean (Spain, France, Italy, Croatia)
Description: Strong aromatic shrub growing as high as 3 to 6ft tall. The leaves are evergreen, typically purple lavender-color.
Bloom Timeframe: June or July lasting 3-4 weeks.
Blue Globe Thistle
Botanical Name: Echinops Bannaticus
Additional Names: Hungarian Globe Thistle
Native Location: Southeastern Europe
Description: Grows 4-6’ tall on stiff, sometimes branching stems. Spiny, deeply-dissected leaves (to 14” long) are rough green above and downy-white below. Globular, thistle-like, gray-blue flower heads bloom at the stem tops in summer.
Bloom Timeframe: July-August
Anise Hyssop
Botanical Name: Agastache Foeniculum
Additional Names: Blue Giant Hyssop, Fragrant Giant Hyssop, Lavender Giant Hyssop
Native Location: North-central/Northen North America; The Great Plains
Description: Grows from 2–4 ft tall and 1 ft wide, in a clump-like, upright shape, with flowers appearing in showy verticillasters, or false whorls, and occasionally branching at the apex. The leaves have an oval, toothed shape with a white tint underneath.
Bloom Timeframe: June-September
Red Clover
Botanical Name: Trifolium Pratense
Additional Names: Peavine Clover
Native Location: Europe, Western Asia, Northwest Africa
Description: A herbaceous, short-lived perennial plant, generally variable in size, growing 8–31 inches tall. It has a deep taproot which makes it tolerant to drought and gives it a good soil structuring effect. The leaves are alternate, trifoliate (with three leaflets), green with a characteristic pale crescent in the outer half of the leaf. The flowers are dark pink with a paler base.
Bloom Timeframe: June-September
Blue False Indigo
Botanical Name: Baptisia Australis
Additional Names: Blue Wild Indigo
Native Location: Central and Eastern North America
Description: Reproduces both sexually and asexually by means of its spreading rhizomes. The plant is erect and emerges from the rhizomatic network. The roots themselves are branched and deep, which helps the plant withstand periods of drought. When dug up they are woody and black in colour and show tubercles, wart-like projections found on the roots. The plant branches extensively about halfway up. The stems are stout and glabrous, or hairless. Broken stems secrete a sap that turns dark blue on contact with the air.
Bloom Timeframe: May-June
Black Eyed Susan
Botanical Name: Rudbeckia Hirta
Native Location: Central and Eastern North America
Description: An upright annual (sometimes biennial or perennial) growing 12–39 inches tall by 12–18 inches wide. It’s mostly basal leaves grow 4–7 inches long, covered by coarse hair with stout branching stems and daisy-like composite flower heads. In the species, the flowers are up to 4 inches in diameter, with yellow ray florets circling conspicuous brown or black, dome-shaped cone of many small disc florets. However, extensive breeding has produced a range of sizes and colors, including oranges, reds and browns.
Bloom Timeframe: June-September
Prairie Blazing Star
Botanical Name: Liatris Pycnostachya
Native Location: Southwest Wisconsin, United States
Description: The stalks can reach 2-6 ft, the leaves are linear and grass-like. The end of the flower stem is covered in a spike of flower heads 1⁄4-1⁄2 inches across that bloom pink to purplish pink for a month in late summer, from the top down. Flower head has 5-8 florets and is surrounded by overlapping pinkish bracts (phyllaries) whose tips are pointed and curve backwards. The stems, leaves, and bracts may be smooth or hairy to varying degrees.
Bloom Timeframe: July-August
Boneset
Botanical Name: Eupatorium Perfoliatum
Other Names: Feverwort, March Sage
Native Location: Eastern United States and Canada
Description: Grows up to 39 inches tall, with opposite, serrate leaves that clasp the stems (perfoliate). The stem is hairy. The plant produces dense clusters of tiny white flower heads held above the foliage.
Bloom Timeframe: July-September
Feather Reed-Grass
Botanical Name: Calamagrostis × Acutiflora
Native Location: Europe and Asia
Description: Clumps of narrow leaves 18-36” tall are dwarfed by flower stems which rise to 5’ tall in summer bearing feathery flower spikes. Flowers are followed by golden seeds which mature to tan. Seeds often persist into winter. Seeds are sterile.
Bloom Timeframe: May-February
Butterfly Milkweed
Botanical Name: Asclepias tuberosa
Other Names: Butterfly Weed
Native Location: Eastern and Southwestern North America
Description: A perennial plant growing 1–3ft tall. The leaves are spirally arranged, lanceolate, 1-4 inches long. They each have five petals and five sepals. The fruit pod is 3–6 inches long, containing many long-haired seeds.
Bloom Timeframe: June-August
Coneflower
Botanical Name: Echinacea
Native Location: Eastern and Central North America
Description: A herbaceous, drought-tolerant perennial plants growing up to 4 ft. They grow from taproots. They have erect stems that in most species are un-branched. Both the basaland cauline (stem) leaves are arranged alternately. The leaves are normally hairy with a rough texture, having uniseriate trichomes (1–4 rings of cells), but sometimes they lack hairs.
Bloom Timeframe: June-August
Marvelette Blue
Botanical Name: Clinopodium Nepeta
Other Names: Calamint
Native Location: Mediterranean, North Africa, and parts of Central Asia
Description: A perennial shrub, forming a compact mound of shiny, green oregano-like leaves. The flowers are lavender pink. The plant reaches a height of 18 inches.
Bloom Timeframe: June-September
Blazing Star
Botanical Name: Liatris Spicata
Other Names: Gayfeather
Native Location: Eastern United States and Eastern Canada
Description: 'Alba' and 'Floristan White' (Left) which are white-flowering cultivars on 18 inches tall spikes, 'Floristan Violett' (Right) with a strong stem and thick, violet flower spikes
Bloom Timeframe: July-August
Frost Aster
Botanical Name: Symphyotrichum Pilosum (formerly Aster Pilosus)
Other Names: Hairy Aster, Steelweed
Native Location: Central and Eastern North America
Description: A perennial, herbaceous, flowering plant that reaches heights between 2 inches and 5ft.
Bloom Timeframe: August-October
Ornamental Oregano
Botanical Name: Origanum Kent Beauty
Native Location: Europe, North Africa, Asia
Description: A semi-evergreen, bushy subshrub with trailing stems covered with small, rounded, silver-veined, blue-green, aromatic leaves, with whorls of pendulous, papery pink, cream, and pale green, hop-like flowers.
Bloom Timeframe: June-September
Whirling Butterflies
Botanical Name: Oenothera Lindheimeri
Other Names: Lindheimer's Beeblossom
Native Location: Louisiana, Texas
Description: A herbaceous clump-forming perennial that grows up to 5' tall on stems clad with spoon-shaped lanceolate leaves (to 3" long). Pinkish buds along wiry, erect, wand-like stems open to white flowers which slowly fade to pink. Flowers appear in long, open, terminal panicles and open only a few at a time. Narrow, lance-shaped, stemless leaves are occasionally spotted with maroon.
Bloom Timeframe: August-October
Porters Sunflower
Botanical Name: Helianthus Porteri
Other Names: Stone Mountain Daisy
Native Location: Southeastern United States
Description: An annual herb up to 40 inches tall. One plant usually produces 5 or more flower heads, each containing 7 or 8 yellow ray florets surrounding 30 or more yellow disc florets.
Bloom Timeframe: July-August
Chives
Botanical Name: Allium Schoenoprasum
Other Names: Onion Grass
Native Location: North America
Description: A bulb-forming herbaceous perennial plant, growing to 10 inches tall. The bulbs are slender, conical, long, it grows in dense clusters from the roots. The scapes (or stems) are hollow and tubular, up to 20 inches long with a soft texture, although, prior to the emergence of a flower, they may appear stiffer than usual. The grass-like leaves, which are shorter than the scapes, are also hollow and tubular, or terete (round in cross-section).
The flowers are pale purple, and star-shaped with six petals, produced in a dense inflorescence of 10–30 together; before opening, the inflorescence is surrounded by a papery bract.
Bloom Timeframe: April-May
Velvet Panicum
Botanical Name: Dichanthelium Scoparium
Native Location: Southeastern United States
Description: Clumps of stems up to 1.5 meters tall. There are 7-11 hairy leaves on each stem.
Bloom Timeframe: May-October
Golden Alexander
Botanical Name: Zizia Aurea
Native Location: Eastern Canada and Southern United States
Description: Grows up to 30 inches tall but can sometimes grow taller. Each leaf is compound and odd-pinnate, with leaflets that are normally lanceolate or ovate with serrated edges. The root system consists of a dense cluster of coarse fibrous roots.
Bloom Timeframe: May-June
Nodding Onion
Botanical Name: Allium Cernuum
Native Location: North America
Description: A herbaceous perennial growing from an unsheathed elongated conical bulb which gradually tapers directly into several keeled (thin and flat) grass-like leaves. Each mature bulb bears a single flowering stem, which terminates in a downward nodding umbel of white or rose, campanulate (bell-shaped) flowers. The flowers are pink or white with yellow pollen and yellow anthers.
Bloom Timeframe: July-August