Maricopa, AZ Landscaping Rules: Native Plants (2026)

The City of Maricopa actively promotes native and desert-adapted landscaping. Maricopa City Code Ch. 18.90 lists among its purposes encouraging the use of drought-tolerant, native, or adapted plant species and discouraging nonnative invasive plants that require more water. The code encourages 'desert cobble' ground treatments that mimic the natural desert floor and directs that landscape plant materials consist of drought-tolerant indigenous species, referencing the kinds of plants on the Arizona Department of Water Resources Pinal AMA low-water-use plant list or a similar document. Required landscape areas combine trees, shrubs, and ground cover; the code calls for shrubs with a minimum mature height around 18 inches and inert ground cover such as decomposed granite at a minimum depth of two and one-half inches. Choosing native and desert-adapted plants is the simplest way to meet these expectations while conserving water in the Pinal AMA. Separately, removing native plants from the desert is governed by Arizona, not city, law: under Ariz. Rev. Stat. 3-906, protected native species cannot be taken or transported from their original growing site without a permit, tag, and seal from the Arizona Department of Agriculture, and saguaros over four feet require a permit to move. Within HOAs, approved plant palettes often further steer residents toward low-water desert species.