California-Friendly Vegetation

If your current vegetation looks unhealthy or is difficult to maintain, try using California-friendly vegetation in your structural BMPs. The plants listed on this page are great for sustainable landscape design.

Switching to drought-tolerant and/or native plants can reduce your irrigation and maintenance needs, while preserving the water quality benefits that your structural BMP provides.

These plants can withstand periods of little to no water, along with occasional flooding.
 

Vegetation in poor health

California-friendly plants

Before You Start

A few things to note before you remove your old vegetation:
 

  1. The location, size, and layout of your structural BMP cannot change.
  2. Your new vegetation should be appropriate for use in a structural BMP. Suggested plant types for structural BMPs are listed on the reverse side of this flyer.
  3. Your new vegetation must provide, at minimum, 70% ground coverage (consistently distributed throughout your structural BMP).
     

Red Fescue

California Gray Rush

Canyon Prince Wild Rye

Suggested Plant Types for Structural BMPs

                                           Plant Name                 Preferred Planting Location 
              COMMON               SCIENTIFIC         FLOOR             SIDE SLOPES
Yarrow Achillea millefolium                         X
Thingrass Agrostis palens                         X
Yerba Mansa Anemopsis californica                         X
Marsh Baccharis Baccharis douglasii              X  
California Field Sedge Carex praegracilis              X  
San Diego Sedge Carex spissa              X  
Rusty Sedge  Carex subfusca              X                       X
Salt Grass  Distichlis spicata              X  
Pale Spike Rush Eleocharis macrostachya              X  
Red Fescue Festuca rubra              X                       X
California Fescue Festuca californica                         X
Hayes Iva Iva hayesiana                         X
Mexican Rush Juncus mexicanus              X                       X
California Gray Rush Juncus patens              X                       X
Canyon Prince Wild Rye Leymus condensatus              X                       X
Nevin’s Barberry Mahonia nevinii                         X
Deergrass  Muhlenbergia rigens              X                       X
Scarlet Monkeyflower Mimulus cardinalis              X                       X
Fuchsia Flowering Goose Ribes speciosum                         X
California Wild Rose Rosa californica                         X
Low Bulrush Scirpus cernuus              X  
Blue-eyed Grass  Sisyrinchium bellum                         X


BMP Floor and Side Slopes
 


BMP Fact Sheets in PDF format

Structural BMP Outreach Flyers (Educational Resources Page)
 

Contact

  (858) 495-5323

  BMP.Program@sdcounty.ca.gov

 

 

Maintaining My Structural BMP Home Page