It’s no secret that we love native plants at the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum! Native plants are hard to beat for resilience and adaptability. By providing habitat for insects, mammals, reptiles and birds, native plants are also critical to maintaining biodiversity and ensuring that our planted landscapes function as ecological communities. Native plants comprise the majority of NSA's recommendations because their ability to adapt to the variable weather conditions of the Great Plains is simply amazing and because they are critical to maintaining the ecology of our region. However, the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum has never claimed to be native plant purists. In fact, we frequently recommend, celebrate and use plants that aren’t native to Nebraska.
What is a native plant, exactly? That is a surprisingly debatable question with a number of possible answers. One could require that the plant be documented in undisturbed soil in a particular county, but that definition is very limiting, based on political rather than ecological boundaries and vulnerable to significant human error or lack of information.
A more realistic, and more easily researched, definition is that a native plant is one which belongs to the plant communities known to occur naturally in your region. Nebraska is part of the Great Plains, which includes 11 other states; see a map here. The Great Plains includes three types of grassland (short, tall and mixed grass prairie), as well as multiple woodland communities. If we were working on a conservation project, we would choose a specific community to restore. When working in a designed landscape, on the other hand, we often pick and choose plants from different communities within the region (Great Plains) that meet our design needs and site conditions.
The term "introduced species" includes any plant used in a landscape that did not occur naturally in the region. Introduced species may be native to other parts of the US or even to other continents. We also often refer to "traditional" landscape plants, which are plants that even a non-gardener would recognize (think hostas, daylilies, boxwood, etc.). Sometimes the term "traditional" is used negatively to mean "overused." Many traditional landscape plants are indeed overused, but native species can also become overused within an area as well. Overusing a small selection of plants limits biodiversity and leaves landscapes vulnerable to a single pest, disease or problem.
"Well-adapted" is another term you might hear. Well-adapted plants are introduced species (from other US regions or countries) that solve a problem where native plants struggle. Typical problems include construction soils, salt near roadways, gardens near lawn irrigation and design constraints (not every space is conducive to a tall grass prairie, unfortunately). We also look to well-adapted species to help us plan ahead for changes in the climate. Through the Nebraska Forest Service's Environmentally Adapted Trees (EAT) program, Justin Evertson travels southwest to the Rocky Mountains and other regions to collect seed and look for species that will thrive in Nebraska's landscape in the future.
Often we use introduced or well-adapted plants in a landscape when they solve a problem that native plants can’t or when they have shown themselves to perform as well or better than a native species. This is frequently the case in the urban spaces where NSA does a lot of its work. Once humans design themselves a place to live (and we’re not against that; we like having somewhere to live!), the landscape transitions from a purely natural space to a designed community, which can have different site needs and conditions. Using native plants with a mix of well-adapted introduced species that have proven themselves to be resilient in our climate and growing conditions can often help to create a sustainable landscape that will thrive.
