Guide to Native Plants
The Borough of Oakland would like residents to recognize the importance of using native plants when installing landscaping in their yards. Native plants support our local plant and wildlife communities, do not require pesticides or fertilizer, and need less water. When invasive plants are introduced, natural habitat quality and diversity is reduced, critical habitats for threatened or endangered species are affected, and drainage and erosion patterns are altered which threatens our high quality waterways.
Native Plants
Native plants are those that were growing here prior to European settlement. They have evolved over thousands of years to be adapted to this area and to the other living creatures around them. These species have evolved in the presence of local soils and climate conditions and have developed natural defenses to insects and disease. They require less water and tolerate drought conditions better than exotic species. These characteristics make native species easy to grow, low maintenance plants with many environmental benefits.
Finding native plants at a local nursery can be difficult, as they are not always identified. Recently, however, nurseries have begun to recognize the importance of adding locally native species to their plant inventories. When purchasing plant material for your home and garden, ask the nursery staff for recommendations for native plants.
Why Native Plants?
Low Maintenance - Once established native plants are hardy and adapted to normal weather extremes. They have also developed natural-defenses against pests and diseases reducing the need for applying pesticides.
Wildlife - Native plants provide food and shelter for 10 to 15 times as many species of native wildlife as non-native plants.
Wild Pollinators - Native plants support native pollinators. Native pollinators and native plants have co-evolved to reach an intricate balance. Many wild pollinators can not survive without the plants they have evolved with. (i.e. Monarch Butterflies)
Save Water - Native plants are adapted to moisture from rain and only need watering in severe conditions. One thousand square feet of lawn can use up to 10,000 gallons of water per summer.
Air Quality - Native plants do not require motorized equipment, lawn mowers, string trimmers and leaf blowers can emit more hydrocarbons than a typical car.
Beauty - Native plants can help blend our lands and building into the surrounding environment and create landscapes that are regional, unique, and beautiful.
Biodiversity - Native Plants serve as an important genetic resource for future food crops or other plant-derived products.
Non-Native (Exotic) Plants
Non-native (exotic) plants are those plants that were brought to the area accidentally or purposefully. Many of the flowers and vegetables you grow in your garden are non-native, such as zinnia and cabbage. Some have spread into the wild and are considered naturalized non-natives, for example, Queen-Anne’s lace.
Invasive Exotic Plants
Invasive exotic plants are those that have escaped into the wild and are destroying the native plants and ecosystems around them. Because they do not have the same checks and balances as they did in their native lands, many of these species take over and become invasive. These exotics displace naturally occurring vegetation and in the process, upset nature’s balance and diversity. Invasive plants share the following characteristics:
- rapid growth
- prolific reproductive capabilities including highly successful seed dispersal and germination
- rampant spread and colonization
- costly to control
List of Native Plants in New Jersey
- Rutgers List of Native Plants Species Click Here
- Native Plant Society of New Jersey - List of Bergen County Native Plant Species Click Here
- Audubon Native Plant Database
Credit
- https://njaes.rutgers.edu/fs1140/
- http://www.npsnj.org/pages/nativeplants_All_About_Natives.html
- https://www.audubon.org/news/plant-trees-turn-your-yard-bird-oasis-and-carbon-sponge
Photo by Carol Peterson
Photo by Carol Peterson