Native Plant of the Week: Prairie Smoke ~ Geum triflorum

Prairie Smoke ~ Geum triflorum
The nodding pink flowers are maturing on the prairie smoke right now and attracting many native bees.

Prairie Smoke is more widely recognized for its fruiting stage when the dried, long pinkish styles blow in the wind.

A native of dry to mesic prairies, this is a great plant for well drained soils and sunny locations.

The attractive bright green basal foliage is fern-like and divided into many leaflets.

An old prairie with prairie smoke
seedheads in South Dakota

The five-parted flowerheads nod downwards and tip upwards as the flowers are setting seed.

Prairie Smoke growing in a
gravelly prairie in South Dakota

This is a great native to mass in designed landscapes near the front edge of a planting. It provides early season flowering and later the pink silky seedheads for interest.



The foliage greens up really quickly after the snow melt. Plant it intermixed with warm season native grasses that will emerge later in the spring for a layered effect.

The tiny Sweat Bees (Lasioglossum species) were pollinating the Prairie Smoke flowers this week.

And some of the first Bumble Bees were pollinating the Prairie Smoke flowers in the warm sunshine. You just have to listen for these big bees, as they loudly buzz pollinate the Prairie Smoke flowers.

Prairie Smoke is native to western North America and the northern midwest region. See map below for range.

Kartesz, J.T., The Biota of North America Program (BONAP).
2011. North American Plant Atlas. Chapel Hill, N.C.