Finding Native Plants, or Horticulture Hears a Who

I have a confession to make.

Before now, I had not checked to see if any of the plants I added to the garden were actually considered natives. I'm sure they are native to somewhere, mostly in the US, because I try to bring home species forms only. But native to Maine? ummmm ....

Admittedly, I have reservations about the whole native plant thing. Even though I agree that wildlife habitat, especially in urban and suburban areas, is vital, and that native plants are essential to habitat, I have yet to find a satisfactory answer to the question of 'how far away can still be considered native.'

Maine is a very large state and from north to south it incorporates three full hardiness zones and seven subzones (all the way from 3a to 6a). Clearly, there are plants that would grow on the far eastern tip of the coast that could never survive in, say, Fort Kent, in extreme northern Maine, and therefore could not be considered "native" there by virtue of untouched evolution. Likewise, a plant that had evolved for the climate in Fort Kent might easily survive winter in zone 5b but be very unhappy with the coastal climate, which is usually quite humid in summer. Using arbitrary (state) boundaries to classify plants as "natives" is not useful at all. Some plants' native range runs all the way from Quebec to Georgia.

Most definitions of "native" plants skirt this question entirely, preferring to address it in historical, ecological terms: native plants are those which evolved without human intervention, and before the Europeans arrived. (Never mind that Native Americans routinely burned areas to prepare them for agriculture, then moved on and left them fallow for years to recover, which influenced the ecology and therefore evolutionary pressures on plants and wildlife.)

I have so far selected plants identified as "natives" on the basis of whether they will be happy with the kind of soil, amount of sunlight and rain, and can withstand the cold winters and hot dry periods (alternating with torrential downpours) in summer. They may not be native to the geographical region, but they are native to the environmental conditions present in my gardens.

Happily enough, that has worked very well. After checking around with various sources, I'm pleased to find that I inadvertently included quite a few species that are considered to be Maine natives without even trying.

Unhappily, that search took far longer than it should have. Many nurseries selling 'native' plants don't specify the region where the plant occurs naturally. Other than the University of Maine Cooperative Extension publications on backyard habitat (which are interesting, if somewhat generic), and their lists of "recommended"  native plants (recommended for what? are they host plants for insects? or is it that they are the least "weedy" species, acceptable to fussy gardeners and available as everyday offerings at nurseries?), it is very difficult to find any listing of Maine natives -- especially in Maine or New England.

Maine itself appears to lack any organized, active botanical or wildflower society. Possibly this is because a lot of Maine is still wilderness, except along the coast. Does wildlife need a habitat garden with the north woods just the other side of the back yard? State government encourages land owners to preserve parts of their holdings for ecological purposes, but it's a 'hands off' approach. There isn't much support for urban homeowners with the same ambitions who require 'hands on' to mimic what occurs in the wild.

The closest thing I could find is the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay Harbor, an hour from Portland, with its 'acres of ornamental gardens with natives and non-natives' and as yet no significant publications or information on its Web site. Other New England states, like Connecticut, have online sites that furnish a great deal of horticultural information. It looks as though the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens plans to do that as part of its educational mission. Someday.

The New England Wildflower Society, where I was sure I would find heaps of knowledge, does not have an online database. Their Web site, which is even more generic than the University of Maine publications, offers only classes and books. I received a very pleasant reply to an e-mail inquiring about a wildflower database that invited me to become an associate member, but I'm not sure how useful that could be.

Mysteriously, in a recent issue of Fine Gardening, which I received as a sample, William Cullina, a respected author and the head of the botanical gardens for the NEWS, wrote a guide to native shrubs for fall color, listing suggestions for each region of the country -- except the Northeast.

Likewise, Douglas Tallamy's book, Bringing Nature Home, has a guide to suggested native plants as an appendix -- for every region except the Northeast.

This is where I feel I'm shouting, 'We are here! We are here!'

The one (horticultural elephant?) site on the Internet where I was able to find an exceptional list of plants categorized as native to Maine was the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center -- in Austin, Texas, apparent center of the gardening universe. So far I've gone through the lists of sub-shrubs and perennials, and recommended natives (by state!), and selected several things, which are available mostly from out-of-state nurseries dedicated to restoration plantings, to add to the garden.

The unfortunate aspect here is I can't find any information that corroborates this list, and I'm not entirely sure it's accurate. Some of the species listed here are categorized as non-natives by the University of Maine (like Monarda didyma).

I thought I had stumbled across an ally when I hooked up with the USDA Plants Database, until I skimmed through it and saw they had listed aliens that are considered invasives (eg, Oriental bittersweet and Deschampsia caespitosa). Clearly, it is a simple plant distribution list by state, not a reliable guide to natives.

It's unfortunate that this information is so hard to get at, especially with the increasing amount of attention given to it by other states. In the end, the state of Maine, through the state university, should make this information available to residents.

In Maine politics there is constant grousing about the need for development, the high tax rate, and the 'unfriendly' climate for big business.

I wonder whether the states which have these things devote time and energy to preservation because they're beginning to see what they've lost by plundering natural areas and selling whatever can be produced.

I'm afraid Maine doesn't know, or appreciate, how much it has now, or what a major part in 'ecosystem services' indigenous plants and wildlife, undeveloped places, and corridors in developed places, really play.

Comments

[eliz]

I have had similar problems. The one place that seemed good, Canadaway Wildflowers, seems to have closed. But the woman who ran it did a list for me--well, the magazine, really. Here's a link. Tell me what you think of this list?
http://buffalospree.com/archives/2006_04/0406Gardening.html
The area she defined on her site (now down) was quite large, from Canada south to the gulf, east almost to the Atlantic, west, I think to the Mississippi.

[firefly]

Thanks for the link. The list agrees with much of what I've found for native plants in this region. I like that it's categorized by light and moisture too.

The one drawback, though, is it doesn't list shrubs or trees, which Tallamy emphasizes. (Still can't figure out why he skipped the NE. Are we born with some kind of Regional Plant Expertise?)

Allan Armitage's book "Native Plants for North American Gardens" has also been a big help, but it doesn't list everything commercially available.

If like me you get really curious, the Ladybird Johnson Center has exhaustive and cross-referenced lists. For example, you can look at recommended plants for the entire Northeast or zero in on New York.

If you don't want to limit the search to plants "commercially available for landscape purposes," you can back all the way out to the main database and just search by state. Trees, herbs, shrubs, subshrubs, perennials, ferns, grasses, cactus/succulents, and vines are all listed.

That is one serious database -- total geek appeal, and native plant information too!

[eliz]

Thanks for this info, both here and on GR.