Native Plants: Beautiful, Important, Threatened
Native plants are beautiful.
Native plants are beautiful in their natural environment, in parks or public spaces and in private gardens, in all seasons.
Native plants are important.
Time spent in natural areas soothes the soul, calms the brain and promotes healing.
Native plants are a source of food. Only plants can convert the sun’s energy into food. Wild native plants are still used for human food: raspberries, blueberries, fiddleheads and maple syrup.
Native plants are a source of traditional, herbal and modern medicines. Examples include evening primrose, echinacea, and St John’s wort. Half of all medical drugs are derived from natural sources.
Native trees provide wood for construction, furniture and ornamental use, and can be burnt as fuel logs.
Native plants are good for the climate. Plants remove pollutants and carbon dioxide from the air and provide oxygen. Some native plants, such as switch grass, can be used to create ethanol for fuel.
Native plants provide food and habitat for creatures, including the pollinators we need for our crops.
Native plants face many man-made threats:
The threat of agriculture.
Agriculture has resulted in the clearing of millions of acres for crop production (36% of all land, worldwide). Round up resistant GM crops allow for herbicide spraying, which eliminates wildflowers from crop areas.
The threat of urban sprawl.
43,480 sq. miles of USA have been paved over, equivalent to all of Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island combined. Lawns cover an even larger area: 49,000 sq. miles in USA. They do not support native species and often require water, fertilizer and herbicides.
The threat of invasive species.
We bring new species into Canada, by accident or by design. With no natural checks and balances, some of them grow out of control. They take over, displacing native species. Examples: garlic mustard, dog strangling vine, periwinkle and Norway maple.
The threat of global warming.
The effect of global warming on native plants is hard to predict. Some plants are already moving northwards to cooler areas. Whole ecosystems cannot move rapidly. Lakes, mountains, cities and changes in soil all limit the ability of plants to move.
Native plants need human help.
What can you do?
- Learn more about native plants.
- Buy native plants and grow them in your garden.
- Encourage planting them in public places.
- View plants growing in their native habitat.
- Take political action.
- Join the North American Native Plant Society.
Political actions:
- Give every child the chance to grow a native plant from seed and plant it in a schoolyard.
- Lobby for planting local native plants in public places, including parks and roadside verges.
- Encourage people to plant native plants in their front and back yards.
- Ban the sale of invasive plants, such as Norway maple.