I Can't Believe It's Not the Native!

The Southeastern US and several Asian countries (China, Japan, Korea) share a lot of plant relatives and apparently have very similar climate. Many Asian plants do very well here (some of them even do a little too well), and botanists have introduced a lot of them over the years (going way back to the 1700’s).

Some of them have been well-known introductions for many years: Asian azaleas (they are evergreen) and hydrangeas (they have pink and blue blooms) have graced many southern landscapes for years. Some are so intertwined into our natural areas that people don’t even realize they are not native: Japanese honeysuckle (white and yellow flowers) and Chinese/Japanese wisteria (large panicles and fuzzy seed pods) can be found in many ‘wild’ places.

As close as these “cousins” are to our native plants, it’s worth recognizing that they’ve still been separated from ours for long enough that the rest of our local ecosystem doesn’t recognize them well enough. Some estimates put that separation at 135 million years ago! To support the insects and the other critters, it’s still best to choose and use the Georgia natives.

In addition to the azaleas, hydrangeas, honeysuckle, and wisteria are some other plants where non-native cousins have been showing up in the nursery trade. Be careful when you’re shopping so you know what you’re getting, checking not just the common name, but also the genus and species. Use your smartphone to verify on the spot. Recently I saw a plant label for wisteria that had no species name so the buyer would not know what they were getting. Walk away from insufficient information, or let the nursery know that the labeling is inadequate.

Magnolia: Deciduous Asian magnolias have been in nurseries and gardens for years. While there are some deciduous native magnolias, there are no native magnolias with pink flowers. Native deciduous magnolias include M. macrophylla, M. tripetala, M. acuminata, M. pyramidata, and M. fraseri.

Bigleaf magnolia (Magnolia macrophylla)

Viburnum: Non-native viburnums have also been in nurseries and gardens for years.  Some of them, like the snowball viburnum, are quite showy in the spring. Others, like the linden viburnum, have been used to grow berries for birds. Native viburnums include V. dentatum, V. nudum, V. acerifolium, V. opulus  var. americanum (careful, V. opulus is not native, look for the var. americanum), and many others. Read my earlier blog here about viburnums.

Oak (Quercus): Most of the oaks sold in the nursery trade are native with one notable exception – sawtooth oak (Q. acutissima), which is often used in parking lots and other urban settings. This ragged-leaf oak looks similar to chinkapin oak but the fringed acorn caps on sawtooth are distinctive. We have plenty of native oak species to choose from and many of them grow just as quickly or equally well in urban environments.

Euonymus: The non-native burning bush is gaining favor in designed landscapes and is on track to become a real pest in Georgia (the lag time on plant-introduction-to-invasive-plant can be 20-50 years). I see quite a bit of it popping up into natural areas near me. Georgia has two species of native Euonymus but you really don’t find them in nurseries much so anything you find is probably the non-native. In Georgia, Euonymus americanus is the more commonly found of the two.

Hearts a bustin' (Euonymus americanus)

Beautyberry (Callicarpa): The native has the name to match: Callicarpa americana. It also has bigger leaves. Another difference is the position of the flowers and fruit relative to the stem. The native species are closely held to the stem while the Japanese ones have a little bit of length holding them aloft. The difference is noticeable if you see them together so compare some pictures on the internet. Unfortunately, the non-native ones are sold a lot and not always well-labeled.

American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana)

Fringetree (Chionanthus): Look for the one with an American state in the name, Chionanthus virginicus. The non-native one is popping up in nurseries more often as well and is promoted as ‘showier.’ Both have white fringe flowers and the females bear the blue drupes that remind you they are in the olive family.

Redbud (Cercis): Another easy one to choose if you look for the North American name, Cercis canadensis. Although the native species has gained popularity thanks to cultivars (e.g., ‘Forest Pansy’ and ‘Rising Sun’), the Asian ones now have cultivars as well with bigger, more deeply purple flowers and glossy leaves.

Bees love Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis)

Sweetshrub (Calycanthus): This native shrub (Calycanthus floridus) is wonderful just as it is, but some people decided to hybridize it with Asian relatives. Anything that you find with an ‘x’ in the name means that it has been crossed (for example Calycanthus x ‘Hartlage Wine’). There are native cultivars but they should be labeled with the full name: Calycanthus floridus ’Athens’ or ‘Michael Lindsey.’

Dogwood (Cornus): Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) has a competitor called kousa dogwood which has similar large, white bracts. It blooms a little later than the native and the fruits are large and not edible by small birds (which is a key feature of the native species).

Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida)

The next time you’re looking for a landscape plant, make sure you know what you’re getting. Some of these have very subtle differences to humans but which are chemically significant to insects. You might find yourself saying “I can’t believe it’s not the native one,” but they’ll know.

Thanks to my very creative husband for the graphic.