I know focusing on native plants is central to ecological sustainability on our campus, but unfortunately, it looks like there are not many species native to our area that would thrive on a green roof. Since a roof can be a fairly hostile environment, the plants that do the best up there are alpine, desert plants that do well in rocky, thin soiled environments. Additionally, greenroofplants.com says that any eastern US native plants would require extra shading. Buck Hall is not shaded at all by trees which would make it even more difficult for native plants to thrive on the roof. We could perhaps include some native plants in the third tier idea since, in that tier, we’re committing to more maintenance anyway.

Fortunately, many of the plants we could use are incredibly attractive, such as wildflowers and succulents, and require little maintenance after planting. Based on what I have learned in Conservation Biology so far this semester, I am fairly confident that plants native to the American Southwest and other desert type habitats would not thrive on the ground and would thus not invade on pre-existing ecosystems surrounding Buck Hall.

I have an email out to GreenRoofPlants asking for some consultation for more specifics about the kind of plants we could use and will report back upon receiving a response.

Here are the links with which I consulted:

http://inhabitat.com/top-10-plants-for-a-living-roof/

http://www.greenroofplants.com/green-roof-technology/green-roof-faqs/#Can%20people%20walk%20on%20the%20green%20roof