A naturalized area on the school grounds has many benefits. It will be an effective place for exploration during recess and during class time. In Adapting School Grounds For Outdoor Learning, I encourage your school to simply lay down a generous amount of wood chip mulch to prepare a rich soil for planting. In Planting for Pedagogy II, my criteria for plant choices are
- that they are native to your geographic region;
- toughness: since their home will be at a school, the plants need to be able to survive a lot of handling and play;
- safety: none of the plants I recommend have poisonous parts.
In this post, I get a bit more specific about what trees, shrubs and plants have no place in your school's naturalized area and why.
Invasive Species
- Norway maples are a popular tree choice for (sub)urban areas. They can handle the pollution, salt and compacted soil conditions of urban environments. But their prolific seeding causes them to take over woodlots and ravines, crowding out the established plantings that belong there. As their name suggests, Norway maples are not native to North America. They can be identified by their five-point leaves that are much larger than sugar maple leaves. Norway maple leaves typically get black spots on them starting in late summer. Those prolific seed keys are paired like airplane wings (right), compared to sugar maple keys which pair up like a horseshoe or plier handles (left).
Daily Hampshire Gazette - Bradford Pear is not a native species. In fact, it is now considered an invasive species by more and more cities and extension services. They proliferate in places where they crowd out the kinds of trees that insects and birds are adapted to for their food.
- Burning bush has also made it onto the invasive species list because birds spread its seed prolifically enough for the shrub to take over aggressively.
Burning Bush taking over forest understory.
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Some plants are unfortunately best to avoid at schools because their berries or other parts are poisonous.
- You may have heard of water hemlock in the news. It looks a bit like Queen Anne's Lace, so it is pretty, but do not plant it! Water hemlock is the most violently poisonous plant native to North America. Its active toxin, cicutoxin, is a convulsant even in small doses.
- I wish I could recommend the beautiful Virginia creeper vine. It is native to much of North America; it provides food for birds, and in the fall its leaves turn a fiery red. But its berries are poisonous so it is best to avoid it.
- Winterberry, related to hollies, is a pretty shrub native to North America. Its berries are poisonous, though, so why take the risk?
- Pokeweed is a native species. It is a perennial plant that grows to be the size of a shrub with sprays of dark purple berries. Unfortunately the berries as well as the rest of the plant are poisonous.
- The native woodland groundcover Bloodroot is also poisonous.
- Daffodils are not a native species. Daffodil bulbs are poisonous. You may ask, 'Who would eat the bulb?' but you are also elementary school teachers with enough experience that you know that, with some kids, one can never be sure...
- Climbing nightshade or bittersweet nightshade is a perennial vine that is not a native species. Even if you don't plant it, it will probably show up along fencelines, since its seeds are spread by the birds that land on them. Climbing nightshade's red berries are poisonous.
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- I wish that I could recommend sumac as an option for the schoolyard. It is a tough shrub, beautiful in fall, that provides shelter and food to birds and insects. But once established, it spreads aggressively in a way that even the most committed nature lover just can't abide within the limited space of urban schoolyards.
- For the same reason, urban school communities might think twice about milkweed. Their spread is not as aggressive as that of sumac, mind you. I have controlled the spread in my suburban yard by pulling out the stalks after blooming, leaving just the root for the following year. At least remove the seedheads before they burst open.
- Lastly, mainly because some students have allergies to bee stings (and because no students enjoy being stung), I would think twice before planting fruit trees. You would probably plant apples and pears, since they are the fruits that ripen during the school year. But once the trees mature, they will certainly drop ripe windfall fruit, and bees and wasps will certainly be attracted to the windfall. At home, we have even encountered a bald faced hornet nest in our pear tree. "Worker hornets aggressively defend their nest," says Wikipedia, and that is certainly what we found out...
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