Campus wildflower plot benefits local wildlife and student learning
IU Southeast professor creates an outdoor classroom with native plant life.
Randy Hunt, professor of biology at IU Southeast, recently planted over 20 species of wildflowers and native grasses in a plot on campus. The wildflower plot serves as an outdoor laboratory supporting courses in biology and IU Southeast’s new sustainability and regeneration degree program, which launched in the fall of 2018.
“Environmental education and contributing to making our campus a model for sustainable land use in our region are the primary purposes for creating our native wildflower pilot project,” said Hunt. “Utilizing our large, ecologically diverse campus for research and education is consistent with the ‘Campus as a Laboratory’ concept, which is encouraged and part of strategic planning on all IU campuses.”
Students taking Hunt’s entomology course and Professor of Biology David Taylor’s course on summer flower plants were the first to use the wildflower plot.
“It’s nice to actually see the wildflowers in our area as opposed to going to a zoo with a botanical garden, and I like that we can see local insects as opposed to museum specimen,” said Jesse Moberly, a senior biology student taking Hunt’s entomology course. “I think the wildflower plot is great. It is a nice boost to all the local pollinators, which we depend on for a lot of things.”
Not only will the wildflower plot serve as a learning opportunity for IU Southeast students, it is also an important step in helping pollinators such as honeybees, butterflies and other insects. Pollinators are responsible for assisting over 80 percent of the world’s flowering plants to reproduce.
According to Hunt, other economic benefits of shifting from higher maintenance turf grass to no-mow zones consisting of native wildflowers include reducing costs associated with fuel, machinery, labor, fertilizer and pesticides and reducing stormwater runoff containing chemicals that pollute waterways from the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico.
“Doing our part in solving these problems and creating a culture of sustainability on our campus is integral to our mission to the regional community we serve and will be attractive to students deciding where to attend college,” said Hunt.