Out On A Limb / August 2006

Go Native!

Exotic plants can add color or interest to landscaping, but they can also spell disaster for a garden’s local inhabitants, including plants, butterflies, birds, and beneficial insects.

For gardeners and land planners, the importance of using native species is increasing. In West Virginia., about 28% of the flora consists of non-native species.

And, since each native plant species is a member of a community that includes other plants, animals and microorganisms, even exotics that are not invasive can have a dramatically damaging effect on the local eco-system. A perfectly polite, non-native invasive plant species can still affect the natural biological diversity by reducing available habitat for native species. In the worst cases, they radical alter the ecosystem processes, alter natural areas and sometimes displace native species altogether.

For the majority of non-native plants, about 85%, their primary environmental sin is simply to take up space that could be occupied by native species. But, once removed from their native habitats, they can begin to reproduce abundantly in their new settings, causing significant environmental disruption.

Invasive plants have competitive advantages over native plant species that often include:

Invasive plants exhibit a competitive advantage over native plant species simply because the insect predators and plant diseases that kept them in check at home aren’t no longer present. Longer growing seasons allow them to shade out native plants while they are small, and to appropriate the lion’s share of moisture and soil nutrients. Many show an astonishing ability to reproduce in disturbed soil or develop rapid growth or massive seed or shoot production. Transported plants often exhibit the capacity to adapt to a wide range of growing conditions, unlike natives who are conditioned to their existing habitat.

Such plants can become an ecological nightmare.

Gardeners, naturalists, state and federal agencies and a variety of landowners have begun to promote native alternatives for conservation purposes on public and private lands. Often, native shrubs, trees and flowers can temper the introduction and spread of exotics.

Native plants are those that evolved naturally in North America. More specifically, native plants in a particular area are those that were growing naturally in the area before people introduced plants from distant places. In eastern and central North America, native plants typically grew in communities with species adapted to similar soil, moisture, and weather conditions.

Landscaping with native plants is appealing on many levels. One is that they save energy. Because native plants have evolved and adapted to local conditions over thousands of years, they’re vigorous and hardy, able to survive winter cold and summer heat. Once established, they require no irrigation or fertilization and they’re resistant to most local pests and diseases, making them contributors to low-maintenance and organic gardening.

The natural balance keeps each species in check, allowing them to thrive in suitable conditions but preventing it from running rampant. Native species rarely become invasive like plants that have been introduced from other areas can be.

Best of all, native plants provide food and shelter for birds, butterflies and other desirable wildlife. Many help to enrich the soil. Their root systems help rainfall percolate into the soil, reducing erosion and runoff and improving water quality.

There is enough diversity in native plants to make dramatic and engaging landscapes filled with interesting flowers and foliage. Native shrubs and trees provide a variety of heights, shapes and textures and many provide winter interest through their bark or seed pods.

West Virginians can take advantage of their native habitat with elderberries and blueberries, coralberries or greenbrier. Elderberries are a particularly valuable food resource for numerous birds and butterflies. Coralberries and greenbrier provide nesting and escape cover for small birds and mammals. Bees, butterflies and songbirds love to visit the fluffy white flowers of buttonbush and frogs and salamanders use the plant for cover. The changing colors of climbing bittersweet berries provide garden interest, and are a favorite treat for robins and squirrels. Crabapple trees create sweet scented flowers in the spring which turn into beautiful blush fruit for jelly before fall. Currants and flowering dogwoods, gooseberries and juicy grapes grow well and easily throughout the Mid-Ohio Valley.

Hawthorns and hollies provide long-term, colorful foliage and rhododendrons and mountain laurel endure the harshest winters and come out blooming each spring.

West Virginians prize pawpaws and plums for their fruit and interesting foliage. Native roses and viburnums give long lasting flowers for summer while winterberry, the wetland holly that sheds its leaves, brightens the winter landscape with bright red berries in the coldest months. Native plants like these are essential to keeping West Virgina wild and wonderful

Even for plants, there’s no place like home. PL

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