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Tallgrass Prairie
Center
From Pod to Prairie: Restoring
Milkweed to an Agricultural Landscape
National Native Seed Conference
April 12-16, 2015
Greg Houseal
Natural Selections Seed
Tallgrass Prairie Biome
Iowa was originally 80% prairie (28 million acres).
Less than 1/10th of 1% remaining in Iowa.
Prairie
Savanna/Woodland
Ag/Urban
www.iowaprairienetwork.org
Status of Milkweed Species Native to Iowa
Species
No. of Counties Status
Sand
A. amplexicaulis
32
Uncommon
Eared
Poke
Tall Green
Swamp/Rose
Wooly
Mead’s
Oval
Purple
Fourleaf
Showy
Narrow-leaved
Prairie/Sullivant’s
Common
Butterfly
Whorled
Green
A. engelmanniana
A. exaltata
A. hirtella
A. incarnata
A. lanuginosa
A. meadii
A. ovalifolia
A. purpurescens
A. quadrifolia
A. speciosa
A. stenophylla
A. sullivantii
A. syriaca
A. tuberosa
A. verticillata
A. viridiflora
2
15
40
84
15
8
18
32
12
16
3
51
99
76
93
57
Endangered
Common NE
Uncommon
Common
Threatened
Endangered
Uncommon
Uncommon
Very uncommon
Threatened
Endangered
Uncommon
Common
Uncommon
Common
Common W
Remnant Collections of Milkweed
Species
#Popn
Swamp
15
Sullivant’s
Years coll’d
2006,2014
4
2012
Common
20
2014
Butterfly
41
1994 –’06
Whorled
13
2014
Propagation
Harvesting
Regardless of method,
all lots > 90% PLS
Natural Selections Plant Materials
Development
Released 59 species from 142 regional sources
(13 grass, 10 sedge, 36 forb species, including swamp
and butterfly milkweeds)
Current Levels of Milkweed Production in Iowa
(2014)
Species
Habitat
(wet-dry)
Seeds
/Oz
Dollars
/Oz
Annual
Production
A.incarnata
W-M
4,800
$ 5.30 - $20.00
8,000 lbs
A.sullivantii
W-M
4,500
- $84.00
0 lbs
A.syriaca
M-D
4,000
$ 6.25 - $21.10
30 lbs
A.tuberosa
M-D
4,300
$18.75 - $36.00
500 lbs
A.verticillata
M-D
11,000
$25.00 -$50.00
100 lbs
Markets for Milkweed Seed in Iowa
• Iowa Department of Transportation
• Integrated Roadside Vegetation Management (IRVM
state and county level)
• Departments of Natural Resources (Iowa, Minnesota)
• Conservation Reserve Program (CRP, WRP, EQIP)
• Pheasants Forever CP25, Pollinator mixes
• Municipalities (storm water mitigation projects)
• Private Sector
Conversion of CRP back into row crop
85% of corn crop is glyphosate resistant
1.6 million acres in 2010 (663,000 hectares).
1.7 million acres in 2013 (4.7% of Iowa land area)
Not...”there is not enough milkweed on the landscape”,
BUT…there is not enough landscape for the milkweed!
So where do we get to plant milkweed!?
114,430 miles of roadsides = 760,000 acres
‘Iowa’s perfect grid’
http://www.wired.com/2015/02/amazing-maps-every-road-us/
Public-owned conservation areas = 838,656 acres
(total Iowa acres = 36,000,000)
Federal
State
County
City
(339,419 acres)
(354,259 acres)
(138,259 acres)
( 6,212 acres)
IRVM Native Seed Distribution Program
82 counties since 1998
$400,000 seed this year alone
~ 600 lbs of 2 milkweed species (swamp,
butterfly)
(Diversity Mix 8 grass, 3 sedge, 27 forb;
“Clean Out’ Mix 7 grass,3 legume,7 forb)
Pounds milkweed seeded 2011 – 2013
(mostly swamp and butterfly)
1,093 lbs Iowa DOT
+ 440 lbs County IRVM
1,533 lbs
(enough to seed 12,412 acres)
Fayette County Roadside
Prairie terraces (STRIPs – Iowa State Univ)
(Science-based Trials of Rowcrops Integrated with Prairie Strips)
• 26.8 million acres of row crops in Iowa
• opportunity to add pollinator host plants and
nectar species into row crop agriculture
Figure 7. Visual examples of sediment loss from three small catchments in Walnut Creek watershed after a 4-inch
rainfall event in June 2008. The 10% prairie catchment had reconstructed prairie planted at the catchment outlet.
Photograph courtesy of M. Helmers (Photograph compilation courtesy of Dr. Matthew Helmers, Iowa State University).
http://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/3/1/206/htm#sthash.vwMFxJCE.dpuf
Prairies On Farms
(Tallgrass Prairie Center)
• 17 acres will be planted this spring in row crop
• 10 grass/5 sedge/8 legume/47 other forbs
• Includes three milkweed species (swamp,
butterfly, whorled)
• Landowner resistance to planting common
milkweed
Prairie as Biofuel 100 acre study site
32 species prairie mix = 3.0 - 4.5 tons/acre
Compared to:
Upland switchgrass = 5 tons/acre
Lowland switchgrass = 7.4 tons/acre
(Miscanthus = 10 - 15 tons/acre)
Bio-retention Cells on UNI Campus
42 stormwater bio-cells City of Cedar Falls
(routinely include butterfly milkweed)
8000 cf (61,000 gallons) per 1.25 inch event
Or approx. 1.7 million gallons annually
Landscaping
Currently 150 acres of diverse prairie on the UNI Campus
Tallgrass Prairie
Center
Thank you. Questions?
The Tallgrass Prairie Center
restores native vegetation for the benefit of society
and environment through research, education, and technology.
The preceding presentation was delivered at the
2015 National Native Seed Conference
Santa Fe, New Mexico April 13-16, 2015
This and additional presentations available at
http://nativeseed.info