Native Plants

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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:

Summary of Functional Benefits of Native Plants in Designed and Natural Landscapes by Brendan Dougherty and Dan Shaw, from the Minnesota Board of Water & Soil Resources that does give a list of publications related to the advantages of native over non-native plants and landscaping.
Landscaping with Native Plants: Quantification of the Benefits of Native Landscaping Current Knowledge from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

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).