{"id":39,"date":"2012-12-21T15:35:33","date_gmt":"2012-12-21T20:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/native-plants-in-your-yard-for-native-wildlife.html"},"modified":"2012-12-21T15:35:33","modified_gmt":"2012-12-21T20:35:33","slug":"native-plants-in-your-yard-for-native-wildlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/native-plants-in-your-yard-for-native-wildlife.html","title":{"rendered":"Native plants in your yard for native wildlife"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\n\"\"<\/a>\nNature is not something\nout there<\/em>, apart from people.\nIt never was, and nowadays people have built and farmed and clearcut\nso much that wildlife species from insects to birds are in trouble.\nIn south Georgia people may think that our trees make a lot of wildlife habitat.\nActually, most of those trees are planted pine plantations with\nvery limited undergrowth, and in town many yards are deserts of grass\nplus exotic species that don’t support native birds.\nDouglas Tallamy offers one solution:\nturn yards into wildlife habitat by growing native species.\nSince we are as always remodeling nature, we might as well do it\nso as to feed the rest of nature and ourselves,\nand by the way get flood prevention and possibly cleaner water as well,\noh, and fewer pesticides to poison ourselves.\n<\/p>\n

\nDouglas Tallamy makes a clear and compelling case in\n\n\"\"<\/a>\n\nBringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n…it is not yet too late to save most of the plants and animals\nthat sustain the ecosystems on which we ourselves depend.\nSecond, restoring native plants to most human-dominated landscapes\nis relatively easy to do.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nSome of you may wonder why native species are so important?\nDon’t we have more deer than we can shoot?\nMaybe so, but we have far fewer birds of almost every species\nthan we did decades and only a few years ago.\n<\/p>\n

\nSome may wonder: aren’t exotic species just as good as native ones,\nif deer and birds can eat them?\nActually, no, because many exotic species are poisonous\n\n\"Japanese<\/a>\nto native wildlife, and because invasive exotics crowd out natives\nand reduce species diversity.\nFrom kudzu to\n\nJapanese climbing fern<\/a>, exotic invasives are bad for wildlife\nand may also promote erosion and flooding by strangling native vegetation.\n<\/p>\n

\nAll plants are not created equal, particularly in their ability to support wildlife.\nMost of our native plant-eaters are not able to eat alien plants,\nand we are replacing native plants with alien species at an alarming rate,\nespecially in the suburban gardens on which our wildlife increasingly depends.\nMy central message is that unless we restore native plants to our\nsuburban ecosystems,\nthe future of biodiversity in the United States is dim.\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nTallamy had an epiphany when he and his wife moved to 10 acres\nin Pennsylvania in 2000:\n<\/p>\n\n\n

\n

\nEarly on in my assault on the aliens in our yard,\nI noticed a rather striking pattern.\nThe alien plants that were taking over the land \u2014\n\n\"\"<\/a>\nthe multiflora roses, the autumn olives, the oriental bittersweets,\nthe Japanese honeysuckles, the Bradford pears, the Norway maples,\nand the mile-a-minute weeds \u2014\nall had very little or no leaf damage from insects,\nwhile the red maples, black and pin oaks, black cherries,\nblack gums, black walnuts, and black willows had obviously supplied many\ninsects with food.\nThis was alarming because it suggested a consequence of the alien invasion\noccuring all over North America that neither I \u2014 nor anyone else,\nI discovered, after checking the scientific literature \u2014\nhad considered.\nIf our native insect fauna cannot, or will not, use alien plants for food,\nthen insect populations in areas with many alien plants will be smaller\nthan insect populations in areas with all natives.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nInsects are the key, because most birds eat insects,\nthus indirectly feeding even birds that eat other birds.\nAnd insects mostly specialize on specific plants.\nWhy?\nBecause many plants produce chemical compounds that are\ntoxic to insects that aren’t specialized on them, or that\njust plain taste bad.\n<\/p>\n

\nExotic plants, on the other hand, are often chosen because\nfew native insects will eat them.\nEven if they aren’t chosen for that reason,\nthere usually aren’t many native insects that will.\n<\/p>\n

\nHow many fewer?\nOne of the surprising parts of the book (to me, at least)\n\n\"bee<\/a>\nwas that much of the research to answer that question didn’t exist,\nand Tallamy and colleagues had to go out and do much of it,\nwhile collecting the few studies of specific insects or specific\nplants that had already been done.\nThey chose butterfly and moth larvae as the insects to study,\nbecause so many birds eat those.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe answer is: a native plant typically feeds 10 to 100 times\nas many native butterfly or moth larvae as an exotic plant.\nThe\n\nhumble goldenrod<\/a>, for example, is a favorite of many insects.\n<\/p>\n

\nBut don’t they adapt?\nYes, but very slowly.\nHe provides a table that illustrates just how slowly:\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Hosting Capacity of Alien Plants
Introduced to North America\n
Tallamy p. 285<\/caption>\n
Plant Species<\/th>\nHerbivores Supported in Homeland<\/th>\nHerbivores Supported in North America<\/th>\nYears Since Introduction to North America<\/th>\nReference<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
\nClmatis vitalba<\/td>\n40 species<\/td>\n1 species<\/td>\n100<\/td>\nMcfarlane & van den Ende 1995<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\nEucalyptus stellulata<\/td>\n48 species<\/td>\n1 species<\/td>\n100<\/td>\nMorrow & La Marche 1978<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\nMelaleuca qunquenervia<\/td>\n409 species<\/td>\n8 species<\/td>\n120<\/td>\nCostello et al. 1995<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\nOpuntia ficus-indica<\/td>\n16 species<\/td>\n0 species<\/td>\n250<\/td>\nAnnecke & Moran 1978<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\nPhragmites australis<\/td>\n170 species<\/td>\n5 species<\/td>\n300+<\/td>\nTewksbury et al. 2002<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\nThat’s right, a hundred years or more and still only a few native\nherbivores will eat these plants.\nInsect evolution to consume new foods takes longer than that,\npossibly thousands of years.\n<\/p>\n

\nTallamy points out that exotic doesn’t necessarily mean\nimported across an ocean, either.\nSpecies from the western U.S. can be exotic in the eastern U.S.,\nfor example.\n<\/p>\n

\nTallamy says right off that his is not a how-to book,\nbut in addition to lists and pictures of exotic invasive plants to avoid,\nhe does include some rough lists of likely native\nplants for your yard, organized by large geographic areas.\n<\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\nUnfortunately, being from Delaware, he’s a bit vague about\nthe U.S. southeast.\nFor example, among trees he doesn’t even mention longleaf pines.\nFortunately, there is a book for that,\n\nNative Trees of the Southeast: An Identification Guide<\/a>\nby L. Katherine Kirkman, Timber Press (OR).\nOnce you have some native trees, consider\n\nForest Plants of the Southeast and Their Wildlife Uses<\/a>\nby James H. Miller, University of Georgia Press.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe beauty of Tallamy’s book is it makes the case for\nnative plants for native insects for native birds and other\ndiversity that will help wildlife and also help humans\ndirectly.\nI already gave this book to several people for presents.\nI recommend everyone with a yard buy this book.\nYou don’t need ten acres; you don’t even need a quarter acre:\nyou can do this right where you live.\n<\/p>\n

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