Pollinator Window Boxes
Year: 2022
Location: Chicago, IL
Status: Built
Hinterlands Team: Conor O’Shea
These locally-sourced native plant combinations create valuable pollinator habitat.
With the global insect population in steep decline, finding novel ways to create habitat for insects is one small step we can take to address this alarming trend. These residential window boxes combine native plants adapted to a full sun to part shade condition. The plant mixes reach about 12” in height which helps preserve views from inside the unit towards the street. The trailing runners of the Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) cascade downwards, creating a gently-swaying green scrim.
Each of the plants provides nectar and pollen resources for local pollinators and the berries of the Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) are edible to humans. Nodding Allium (Allium cernuum) is commonly visited by the Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus) butterfly. [1] Blooms of the Wild Petunia (Ruellia humilis) appear throughout the summer months, each one briefly appearing for a single day before falling to the ground.
[1] Wilhelm, Gerould and Laura Rericha. Flora of the Chicago Region: A Floristic and Ecological Synthesis. Indianapolis: Indiana Academy of Science, 2017.
