Incorporating native plants into home landscaping supports nature’s web of life.

Over the past decade, property owners in Missouri have significantly increased the use of native plants in landscaping projects. Today, it is not uncommon to see butterfly gardens with purple coneflowers and blazing stars in home landscaping and in downtown areas, native grasses in medians, or wetland plants in rain gardens or bioswales on roadsides to manage stormwater.

Why the increase? Simply put, native plants work. Home gardeners, businesses, school campuses, and municipal governments are establishing native landscaping to reduce mowing, manage stormwater, beautify home landscaping, create shade, and improve the overall quality of life for all creatures, including people.

What Is a Native Plant?

Native plants originate within a region as the result of natural processes rather than human intervention. Native plants have existed here for thousands of years before Euro-American settlement, which was only a little more than 200 years ago. While the activities of indigenous people did affect the region’s ecosystems, it wasn’t until the mid-1800s that large-scale habitat alteration and the introduction of non-native plants began to significantly change Missouri’s natural landscapes.

Native plant species in the lower Midwest have adapted to this region’s climate and soil conditions. Even more importantly, native plants co-exist with native insects and other animals, forming the foundation of nature’s web of life. Examples of native plants in Missouri include white oaks, redbuds, pawpaws, bluebells, and persimmons. However, these are just a few of our state’s more than 2,000 native plant species. We have more than the state of Alaska, despite being a fraction of its size. Common non-native plants include petunias (from South America), boxwoods and hostas (from Asia), and Kentucky bluegrass (not from the Bluegrass State, but from Europe, northern Asia, and parts of North Africa).

Supporting Nature’s Web of Life

The foundation for insect and other animal life is native plants. Not just any plants, but plants native to the same region as the insects adapted to eat them. Over thousands of years, specific insects developed the ability to digest natural toxins in specific plants that protect the plants from being eaten. For example, milkweed is toxic to many insects, but it is called a “host plant” for monarch butterfly caterpillars. The caterpillars have developed a tolerance for and dependency on milkweed plants as their exclusive food source. There are many other insect/native plant relationships. In his book “Nature’s Best Hope,” Entomologist Dr. Doug Tallamy compares a native white oak tree in his yard with a non-native, invasive Bradford pear tree in his neighbor’s yard. He found 410 caterpillars on the oak and one caterpillar on the Bradford pear. Those caterpillars are crucial food for the babies of songbirds and other animals, and the native plants thrive despite the munching. Other host plants include partridge pea, which feeds the caterpillars of cloudless sulphur butterflies, and common violets, which feed great spangled fritillary caterpillars. The list goes on and on.

Many of those caterpillars metamorphose into butterflies, while others become nutrition-packed “energy bars” for the hungry chicks of cardinals, bluebirds, and other beloved songbirds. Without them, these baby birds will not survive; unlike their parents, they cannot eat birdseed.

We are included in nature’s web of life, not just in our role as consumers of plants and animals, but also in the plants we choose to plant on our property. Having non-native, invasive plants, like Bradford pears, bush honeysuckle, and burning bush, is like inviting friends over for a buffet of plastic food. Choose native plants and be a host with the most for the natural world that sustains us.

Grow Native!

The Missouri Prairie Foundation’s Grow Native! program offers hundreds of free native landscaping resources. At grownative.org, you will find: a searchable native plant database of native grasses, wildflowers, shrubs, and trees, a directory of suppliers of native plants, seeds, and landscaping services, native garden design plans, more than 30 top ten lists of plants for specific purposes, and a native landscape care calendar to follow to keep your native landscaping looking and performing its best.
And remember, gardening with native plants is not all or nothing. If you have non-native, but beloved, lilacs, daffodils, and boxwoods, you don’t have to rip them out. Just incorporate native plants around them and help the Capital City’s butterflies and songbirds thrive.