"There might soon be more native California poppies, lupines and sunflowers popping up along streets and sidewalks in the region. The University of California, Davis, Department of Human Ecology has teamed up with local nonprofit Miridae Living Labs, which uses native plants and insects as tools for education and research, to launch the 'Seed Pile Project,' a community initiative that aims to find out which native plant seeds are best at dispersing in cities, roadsides, alleyways and other places they may naturally fall.

The project is the brainchild of Haven Kiers, assistant professor in landscape architecture and environmental design, and Billy Krimmel, who earned his doctoral degree in ecology from UC Davis and is co-founder of Miridae Living Labs. They invite volunteers from Davis, West Sacramento and Sacramento to drop small piles of native seed mixes in random spaces where they live or work and monitor which species succeed and under what conditions."

Read the full story at UC Davis News