Build Back Biodiversity

 

I read a quote this week from Doug Tallamy that really resonated with me about what we can do as individuals. The quote was in support of International Day for Biological Diversity (May 22). The theme for 2023 is “From agreement to action: Build back biodiversity.” Doug’s quote is (bolding is mine):

“When I was growing up in the 50s and 60s, the impacts of our rapidly-growing human footprint were obvious enough, but, like everybody else who was concerned about the loss of nature, I focused 100% on saving the bits of nature that had not yet fallen to the bulldozer. Never once did it occur to me that I could rebuild effective habitat right in my yard.”

We now understand that we can (and should) build back some of the biodiversity (that is, biological diversity) that has been lost. Our residential landscapes are becoming key areas to reintroduce native plants and to bolster the biodiversity that is shrinking because of habitat destruction and replacement of natural habitat with development and non-native plants. The very name of this blog is USING Georgia native plants; we need to be USING them in our landscapes. 

Why do we need diversity in our plants? It’s because we have diversity in our insects, and they don’t all eat the same thing.

The story of the Monarch butterfly’s decline in population has gotten a lot of attention over the last decade, and it serves as a reminder that when native insect host plant distribution declines (which was true for milkweed, the single host plant family for Monarchs), so do the insects that depend on it. This is especially true for specialist insects like the Monarch and Zebra Swallowtail butterflies. When insect populations decline, so do all the species in the chain after them (birds, frogs, dragonflies, etc.).

Add some garden-friendly goldenrod

Regular plant nurseries and big box stores often have the same plant choices and most of them are not native. If we all shop there and plant these same non-native plants in every landscape, our biodiversity is reduced because we're all planting the same plants. It is further reduced because most native insects can’t use these non-native plants to further their life cycle. We might as well be landscaping our yards with plastic plants. Plants that literally add life to your landscape need to be native to Georgia.

96% of birds depend on finding insects for themselves or their babies
Photo credit: Romin Dawson

People can be intimidated by the thought of changing their landscape, especially in large amounts. You don’t have to rip out all your landscaping at once and re-do it. We all have time and money constraints. Adding a simple pollinator garden (6x8), replacing a row of non-native shrubs, adding a native oak to your landscape – these are all steps we can make in a positive direction. My post last year offered some tips on getting started.

There are also some things you can do that don’t require planting right now: You can stop applying pesticides to your landscape; [please!] cancel that mosquito-spraying contract; or simply mow your lawn every 3 weeks instead of every 2 weeks. We can make a difference as individuals and with our own yards. We can build back the diversity that our local ecosystem needs. Don’t wait for someone else to do it; remember the Lorax? If not you, then who?

If you haven’t read Doug Tallamy’s books, I do recommend Nature’s Best Hope to get started. I think you’ll find yourself reaching for your shovel before you’re even done with it.

May 2023 Moment in Nature

I am so glad to have this as a monthly feature because I love sharing the #momentinnature that reveals itself every month. And I do mean reveal because they catch me by surprise - I don't plan them.

I came back this week after being gone for few days and was sorry to see that a silk moth cocoon that I had saved was newly vacant. I was hoping to see the giant moth emerge. I left it where I had it; several days later I noticed that the inside now sported a leafy green re-do! A leafcutter bee had chosen to make an egg chamber in the old cocoon. 

As I write this, it is still a work in progress. I believe she has laid one egg and provisioned it and added one partition. Above are two photos, one is my original view and the second is while she is working.

Landscape Spotlight: American Wisteria

 

In my travels, I occasionally come across a particularly nice display of a native plant in a designed landscape. I usually take a photo of it, but I don’t always have a chance to work that into a blog. So this will be a new and occasional series for the blog to feature good landscape examples.

American wisteria (Wisteria frustescens) is an attractive native vine that blooms later than the invasive wisteria species we see on the roadside. It does very well on a structure in the garden, whether it be an arbor or pergola or just a chain link fence. It flowers after the leaves have already emerged, and the flowers are only lightly fragrant. It is not as aggressive as its cousins and maximum length is about 40 feet.

It is most often sold as the cultivar ‘Amethyst Falls’ which was a wild selection noted for good landscape qualities (deep color, early flowering). Unlike, the non-native species, American wisteria usually flowers in its second year, making it a better selection for that reason alone!

Read more about American wisteria on the Virginia Native Plant Society’s website where they profiled it as their 2021 Wildflower of the Year.

Native Evergreen Rhododendron

 

People ask about evergreen shrubs for their landscaping, but I don’t see our evergreen rhododendrons get used as often as they should. This week I had a chance to see some of them blooming when I visited Nearly Native Nursery in Fayetteville. They were at peak bloom, and seeing them reminded me how beautiful they can be.

Rhododendron catawbiense

The first one I spotted was a dark color form of Rhododendron catawbiense, a northern species found in both NW and NE Georgia. Jim (the owner of the nursery) said that Cloudland Canyon State Park is a great place to see this species in the wild.

Rhododendron carolinianum

The next one I saw was a pale pink rhododendron with smaller leaves; I asked if it was R. minus but he said no, this was Rhododendron carolinianum, which has been considered as a variety of minus in the past. In Georgia, it is only in the very NE corner. The flower is a little bit smaller than R minus.

He had a beautiful specimen of Rhododendron minus blooming as well. I have seen it in the wild several times in Georgia; May is the perfect time to see it. It has a surprisingly large range in Georgia, from the NE to the SW.

Rhododendron minus

One other species is found in Georgia: the great laurel (Rhododendron maximum). And while all of these species are quite deserving of a place in our gardens, they are very hard to find in nurseries. You can find rhododendrons in the nurseries, but they are mostly hybrids and it’s very hard to figure out their parentage because sometimes even the parents are hybrids. Even cultivars with names like 'Catawbiense Album' and 'Catawbiense Boursault' hint at only partial parentage with a native species.

It’s time for someone to get back to propagating native evergreen rhododendrons without hybridizing them with non-native species so that gardeners can get these beauties into their landscapes.