Wild Roadside vs. Average Garden

Wild roadsides beat the snot out of the average person's garden when it comes to biodiversity! Maybe not your garden or my garden - but the average garden in the US offers very little biodiversity ... and I would add that is especially true in the fall.

Buckeye (Junonia coenia)

Here a buckeye butterfly gets nectar from a fall blooming thoroughwort (Eupatorium serotinum); beetles, bees and wasps were nearby. When you see these drifts of white flowers in the fall on the roadside, think Eupatorium.











Today’s urban and suburban landscapes have large expanses of lawn grass, green blob shrubs, blooming shrubs like knockout roses and fringeflower, and ornamental trees such as crape myrtle strategically arranged like lollipops throughout the landscape.  

These landscapes are testaments to man’s ability to “control” the natural environment and make it conform to his idea of “nature” by arranging them in groups. As a bonus, these plants respond well to pruning, allowing homeowners to create “well shaped” shrubs.

No native plants here!

Behold the blob shaped shrubs

Further control is gained by choosing “pest resistant” plants which largely consist of plants imported from other parts of the globe - shrubs like privet (Ligustrum), barberry, variegated euonymus, Indian hawthorn, and Loropetulum. Can you even imagine an insect stopping by either of those two landscapes?

Swallowtail on Pycnanthemum

These plants offer very little to the passing wildlife. While owners are happy to know that insects pass right by those yards, the butterflies often pass by as well. There are no plants for the butterflies to lay eggs on. With a reduced insect population, there are too few insects for birds on the hunt so birds are fewer as well. Sure you might see a butterfly or two as well as a few of the adaptable birds like cardinals. But those visitors are nothing compared to the wildlife that is attracted to wild roadsides.

Fall roadsides in Georgia can be a bountiful buffet for wildlife. I love the burst of blooms from plants in the Asteraceae family as well as the wild grasses (family Poaceae).

Solidago canadensis

 
I found a beautiful dry roadside the other day and stopped to observe it. The flowering plants were loaded with insects: butterflies, bees, wasps, beetles, and flies were busy enjoying the nectar and pollen those plants had to offer. The thoroughworts (Eupatorium serotinum and Eupatorium hyssopifolium) were in bloom along with the yellow goldenrods (Solidago). 

Purple lovegrass (Eragrostis spectabilis)

After the insects are done pollinating these flowers (and in some cases laying eggs on the leaves themselves), the songbirds will benefit. They benefit now from eating the caterpillars that come from the eggs, and later they will come back to eat the many seeds on these plants (many tiny flowers make many tiny seeds!). The Carolina wrens have had a feast at my house this year on the caterpillars on the goldenrods.

Verbesina alternifolia

A little further down the road, I found a damp/wet roadside. It was filled with a different group of plants: ironweed (Vernonia), jewelweed (Impatiens), wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia), goldenrod (Solidago), Clematis virginiana, passionflower (Passiflora), and more grasses.

Ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis)

So when you’re considering plants to provide more fall nectar, pollen and even insects for the wildlife you love, think of the wild roadsides. Remember the members of the Asteraceae family: black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia), sunflowers (Helianthus),  goldenrods (Solidago), the thoroughworts and Joe pye weed (Eupatorium), and so many others - even asters themselves. Each of these provides nectar and pollen for insects, plus caterpillars and seeds for songbirds.

A former Eupatorium, now Conoclinium coelestinum

And if you've got a little piece of wild roadside, please don't mow it until spring. So many critters will thank you.

Long live the wild roadsides!