Re: Psuedacorus banned/Natives

 

Dennis we agree on one point, Native plants are under utilized. I respect each person?s right to like different types of plants, roses as opposed to Iris, etc. but personally I never met a plant I didn?t like, or at least was interested in. Native plants seem to get very little respect perhaps because they are so commonly seen. Actually I believe they are often unseen, in that until people have a name for a particular plant it seems to be totally outside their consciousness, but that is another problem. The irony is that many American plants have been ignored by Americans but the Europeans and Japanese have always been very excited about our plants. Two totally American genera are Phlox and Penstemon. It took the English to develop these as garden plants. Now the English Garden Penstemons have come back to America and are often hard to grow in the Eastern USA. Of course they had their roots in the Western mountains but now they seem to yearn for that English climate. I used to argue to my students that native plants were more suitable for their area with desease resistance and adaptation to local wildlife. After using native plants in a garden for many years I no longer think this is true. They may have some resistance but all the indigenous deseases, insects, etc. are used to preying on them and cause just as much damage and frustration as in exotic species. Indeed I suspect there is no difference between native and exotics as groups when referring how they interact with the fauna of the area. My deer seem actually to prefer exotic hostas. Of course there are examples of certain butterflies linked to specific plant species as hosts, but as a group exotics seem no more or less a part of the natural system them the natives. If other native species displace the butterfly?s host plants they are still endangered. The one strong argument for natives is they are already here and shouldn?t we try to keep them. I am a very strong advocate for preserving what we have. I just don?t feel a negative approach of banning plants is the best approach. Certainly warning labels on pseudacorus might be appropriate under some conditions. Destruction of habitat is a much more critical problem. I have seen very few plants native or exotic that compete well with concrete and asphalt. Maybe if one keep it moist pseudacorus would cover that concrete!!!


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