Native Plants in our Yards: The Real Thing for Pollinators

I was reading yet another article about insect declines and the impact of their declines on the rest of the ecosystem. Habitat destruction is always a top contributor to the decline. It occurred to me that human residential construction is a type of habitat destruction.  Unlike with a highway or shopping complex, however, WE have an opportunity with our landscapes to bring back some of the life support for insects by focusing on the plants we choose.  In other words, we have the power in our yards to mitigate habitat destruction!

The best approach to repair habitat destruction is to choose to plant native species in your landscape. Native insects evolved with native plants and the vast majority of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) depend on native plants to create the next generation (the monarch butterfly, pictured above, is a well-known example of an insect requiring a specific native plant). Using non-native plants is not unlike having plastic plants as far as those insects are concerned – they can’t lay their eggs on them.

Plastic plants or non native plants? Which are host plants?

Remember: we need insects for a healthy bird population (96% of which feed insects to their babies).

Add a serviceberry (Amelanchier) instead of crape myrtle in your landscape. Use native upright grasses instead of non-native miscanthus grass. Minimize your lawn - add more productive native plants to that sunny space instead. Use flowering native perennial groupings that include plants for spring, summer, and fall for blooms across all seasons. 

Do you need to have all native plants? I like to suggest something akin to the food pyramid: mostly native with a sprinkling of non-native plants (particularly annuals for extra blooms).

Another important consideration is to pick regionally appropriate plants. Georgia is a very big state and what is native to north Georgia is not always native to south Georgia (and vice versa). Certainly we have oaks and goldenrods (two of my favorites) throughout the state but the specific species may vary; choose the species that will do best in your area. Some plants like the Florida anise shrub (Illicium floridanum) are native to south Georgia (one county) but are planted well up into metro Atlanta. Do the insects that use it fly that far north? Use it sparingly and focus on more local shrubs.

If we're gardening for pollinators and wildlife, our best option is to use the real thing. The plants that co-evolved with our native insects. Anything else is just for looks.