Native plants for rain gardens
A rain garden is a shallow basin planted to catch roof and driveway runoff and let it soak in over a day or two rather than run to the storm drain. That asks something unusual of a plant: tolerate periodic flooding *and* the dry spells between storms. These natives handle that swing. Put the wettest-tolerant species in the low center and grade out to ordinary garden plants at the rim.
Bedfellow lists 366 of these.
The 30 most-observed are listed here — see all 366 in search.
- Red Maple (Acer rubrum)
- Pin Oak (Quercus palustris)
- Sensitive Fern (Onoclea sensibilis)
- Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum)
- Sweet Gum (Liquidambar styraciflua)
- Boxelder (Acer negundo)
- Green Ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica)
- Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)
- Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
- Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)
- American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis)
- White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima)
- Northern Spicebush (Lindera benzoin)
- American Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis)
- Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis)
- American Elm (Ulmus americana)
- Cinnamon Fern (Osmundastrum cinnamomeum)
- Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)
- Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata)
- Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)
- Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides)
- Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum)
- Western Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium bellum)
- Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora)
- Cutleaf Coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata)
- Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis)
- New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae)
- Common Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum)
- Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata)
- Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris)