To see the new garden at Pioneers Park Nature Center, just look up.
The Visitor's Services Wing of the Prairie Building at the center, 3201 S. Coddington Road, recently installed a new rooftop garden.
Called an extensive green roof, this array of approximately 1,000 plants boasts seven kinds of grasses, five types of wildflowers and two varieties of sedges.
"The nature of the experiment is to see which prairie plants will do well on green roofs," said Becky Seth, naturalist for the nature center. Seth ordered all the plants for the garden, from the dotted gayfeather to the prairie spiderwort.
Richard Sutton, associate professor of horticulture and landscape architecture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was brought in to work on the three-year research project because of his expertise with the selected plants.
"(The roof) is basically a design sandwich," Sutton said. "From the structural elements, to the insulating elements, to the waterproofing medium and finally to the plants."
A polymer gel in the soil helps the plants retain water. Microbes also aide the plants in breaking down the soil medium, allowing them to root more effectively.
"Green roofs are well-known in major cities like Kansas City, Chicago and Omaha," said Nancy Furman, coordinator for the nature center. "But they all use non-native plants. We're the first in Nebraska to use native plants."
The major challenge of housing indigenous flora on a rooftop is the length of the plants' root structure, Furman said.
Often, plants native to Nebraska will have roots of 10 feet or longer, a serious obstacle when compared to the four inches available on the nature center's green roof.
"So far it's going great," Furman said. "We've only had to replace 12 plants out of the 1,000."
Seth elaborated on the myriad of benefits garnered from using green roofs.
"They reduce storm water run-off, increase the thermal efficiency of the building, and reduce the heat island effect within a city," Seth said.
The heat island effect is the radiating of excess heat absorbed by the concrete within a city block. In addition to creating an unpleasant hike in the temperature, excess energy is expended, as air conditioners in the area work harder to compensate.
Excess rain water run-off from the nature center's green roof is collected in 3,000 gallon cistern. It is then recycled to water other plants outside the center.
The green roof also provides prairie habitat for native birds and insects and adds a pleasant view for people in a city, Sutton said.
"Prairie plants grow on rocky shelves where soils aren't very deep," Seth said. "We're hoping our plants with survive and thrive up there."
ADAMTEMPLETON@DAILYNEBRASKAN.COM
