The Pretty Self-Seeding Flower That Will Attract Pollinators To Your Yard

When you want to add some color and diversity to your yard, a variety of flowering plants can definitely deliver. Choosing the right plants involves careful planning, as you'll want to select flowers that will do well in your region while increasing the aesthetics of your property. It's also important to determine how much care you can realistically provide for your plants, as well as whether you want annuals or perennials. On top of all of this, you may want to make choices to support pollinating species to make your yard eco-friendlier. While perhaps not among the best-known plants for your pollinator garden, partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata) can check all of these boxes and more.

Partridge pea plants are considered self-seeding flowers that can fill your yard with color. Also called self-sowing plants, these types of annual plants drop seeds at the end of the season so that they come back next year without any additional work on your part. This is unlike perennials, which also return, but they do so from their roots, rather than from self-seeding. In this way, you can consider partridge pea as an eco-friendly plant option because it reduces the need for additional resources required for re-planting. As a bonus, partridge pea may even be considered one of the various cover crops known to help suppress weeds in your garden, and it even adds nitrogen to your garden beds. It turns out that these yellow flowering plants can benefit the environment in other ways as well, thanks to their favorability among certain pollinators.

Partridge pea is technically a legume that is native to multiple parts of the U.S., and primarily in the eastern portions of the country. Native plants are critical in providing food sources for native pollinators, which include a variety of bees, birds, and butterflies, as well as wasps and flies. Partridge pea is particularly helpful for butterflies and bees as a source of nectar. The seeds are also utilized by a variety of songbirds and even wild turkeys! If your goal is to create a more pollinator-friendly yard overall, you might consider planting partridge pea along with several other types of native annuals.

Before planting partridge pea, know that this plant does best in USDA hardiness zones 3 through 9. It's a relatively hardy plant that can also become weedy, and it can also grow up to 3 feet tall. For these reasons, partridge pea previously had a reputation as a weed until gardeners started to witness its wildlife benefits. As a self-seeding plant, partridge pea doesn't need a lot of care in your yard. However, the plant still does best in full sun, as well as soil that is well-draining and kept moist. You can expect pollinators to be most active around the plant when its yellow flowers bloom in the summer and fall months.