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Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

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Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

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Saturday - March 28, 2015

From: Huntingtown, MD
Region: Mid-Atlantic
Topic: Best of Smarty, Non-Natives
Title: Advantages of using native plants
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

Hello. My question is not about a specific plant but a more general question about natives. I am writing a research paper and am interested in finding seminal research that explains why we should use natives. Can you make any suggestions?

ANSWER:

If I interpret your request correctly, you are looking for peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals that support the use of native plants rather articles that list the advantages of using native plants.  There are many of the latter and all one needs to do to find them is the enter a Google search of "research supporting advantages of native plants" or something close to that.  Doing a Google search as described above I did find these articles of interest:

There are other articles you can find using this search method, too, but you could also go to a local library (university libraries are the best source) to use scientific databases (such as AGRICOLA, the database of the US Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Library).

 

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