The use of native plants  in the landscape is rapidly growing across the country. It’s no wonder that landscapers and gardeners alike are spending millions each year to populate yards with these wild beauties. Yet to understand the true importance of this movement we must first look at the larger picture.

Americans generally view the nation as vast and relatively unpopulated. We believe if we add a bunch of condos here and a strip mall there it’s no big deal. Because of this attitude we’ve paved more than 43,000 square miles of land. Even more sobering is that Americans have devoted more than 62,500 square miles to alien lawn grasses; that’s an area more than eight times the size of New Jersey! Worse yet, the USDA estimates that every year between 1982 and 1997, the nation lost 2 million acres of land to development. Despite the recent economic downturn, the rate of development shows little sign of slowing.

“But there are still ‘wild’ places out there somewhere, and these places will be able to sustain the nation’s tremendous biodiversity, right?” Well not really. In fact more than 41% of the land in the lower forty-eight is in agriculture and most of the rest is in commercial and residential development. Additionally, nearly 200 million acres of the remaining “wild” places are now covered in invasive, exotic plant species and these species can’t sustain native wildlife in the same way native plant communities do. This results in simplified ecosystems that support less biota.

Thanks to the work of biologist Michael Rosenweig we now know that the total number of species to survive in a given area equals the total percent of land remaining as habitat. In other words if one develops 50% of habitat, then 50% of the known species will likely vanish. Given the vast amount of land we’ve consumed, this number is very frightening. In other words, the vast majority of the nation’s biota  is on its way out the door.

So you might be thinking that it’s all doom and gloom and there’s nothing we can do to change this course. Wrong! This is where utilizing native plants in the landscape enters the equation. For too long most people have thought of nature as something out there that they visit during vacation. We’ve held the notion that wildlife and people can’t live in harmony. In reality we can live together, it just takes a willingness to share the world with wild creatures and the first step to living in harmony is to restore the native plants that once called your yard home.

Plants are the only organisms in most terrestrial  ecosystems that can harness the energy of the sun. Thus they form the base of the food web and pass the sun’s energy to other organisms when they consume plants. And without native plants, the native insects that comprise the next layer of the food pyramid are not able to survive nor are all the organisms which feed upon insects. This is because most native insects can only eat native plants, not the alien exotics with which most yards are filled. Supporting native insect populations is extremely important because most organisms, including 95% of bird species, rely on insects for a portion of their diet.

In short, if the land is not filled with native plants then most native animals, with the exception of generalists  like aphids, groundhogs, robins, and chipmunks, will not survive. But the solution is simple; we must return native plant communities to the land. In time this will restore the native organisms that rely on the plants, preserving biodiversity.

So how does one begin to use native plants in the landscape? Does it mean you have to rip out your Asian azaleas and hybrid roses? Not necessarily, though you should remove any exotic plant listed as invasive by your state environmental agencies. These include common landscape plants such as Bradford pears, burning bushes, barberries, and butterfly bushes. A great place to start is creating a native plant bed in your lawn or a native privacy screen around the edge of your property. It can even be as simple as replacing any plant that needs to be removed or dies in your yard with a native.

And today finding nursery-propagated  native plants and general information on which species thrive in your region has never been easier. Billions of pages of information are available online or in the hundreds of books written on the subject. Some of the best introductory books on natives are Doug Tallamy’s “Bringing Nature Home” and William Cullina’s “Trees, Shrubs, and Vines” and “Wildflowers.”

It’s best to purchase plants propagated from locally collected seed so that your plants flower and fruit at the same time as local members of the same species. These events are often timed with bird and insect lifecycles, and altering them is a risky practice. Along the same lines, try to avoid purchasing cultivars of native species. These are clones and thus do not provide the genetic diversity of open-pollinated plants. This diversity is very important if we are serious about trying to restore some of the habitat that has been lost and to preserve local native plant populations. By shopping at nurseries specializing only in native plants, it is easier to find local, straight species natives instead of the cultivars commonly offered by traditional nurseries.

While I’ve only talked about the necessity of restoring native plants for ecosystem health, native plants are great options for many reasons. The biggest misconception surrounding native plants is that using them means sacrificing beauty in the landscape. This is simply not true. Native flowers, ferns, grasses, shrubs, and trees come in all different sizes, shapes, textures, and colors. There is a native to fit any spot in the landscape. Another great attribute of native plants is that they are relatively maintenance, pest, and problem-free once established. After all, they’ve evolved to thrive in your region.

Finally, natives provide something that exotic species can’t; that is a sense of place and a connection to the natural world. As we continue to sprawl across the landscape in our homogenous homes and yards, we lose regional identity. In other words, it’s difficult to distinguish a residence in Mississippi from one in Maine because they all look the same. Using native plants in the landscape is the only way to restore this identity since the palette of natives changes greatly from one region to the next. Furthermore, we live in a time when psychologists are discussing “nature deficit disorder.” Some scientists now believe that the increases in attention deficit and anxiety disorders among today’s youth can be attributed to a lack of connection to the natural world. There is no better way to solve this problem than by inviting wild creatures back into your yards.

So go native! I promise you won’t be disappointed.

By:Andy Smith Colby College

[1]  American native plants are species that grew here prior to European settlement.

[ii]  Biota refers to all of the organisms of a region.

[iii] Terrestrial ecosystems are ecosystems on land; they are non-aquatic ecosystems.

[iv]  Generalists are species with the ability to live in very simplified and altered ecosystems largely due to their ability to eat a wide range of food.

[v] NEVER TAKE PLANTS FROM THE WILD UNLESS THEY ARE THREATENED BY IMMINENT DANGER! ie. development