Native Plants Provide Important Role For Pollinators
Bee on a dandelion flower. (file photo)
Oskaloosa, Iowa – Native plants. What purpose do those plants serve to modern day gardening and the environment?
This past week at the Iowa State Extension office, Hannah Howard, Southeast Iowa Field Coordinator for Trees Forever talked about why those plants are important to a healthy environment and how those native plants help to maintain the ecosystem.
Howard spoke about the importance of native flowers, grasses, trees and shrubs, and potentially utilizing those in the lawn, or switching more from the non-native items in our gardens to native counterparts that will be more beneficial to the ecosystem.
Beyond the plants, providing nesting areas for the pollinators is important. Anything from leaving bare ground in your garden to stick piles. Howard explained that even little changes “here and there” can impact native species.
“If everyone makes just a little change with pollinators, it can really go a long way,” said Howard.
Those native plant species also play an important role for the pollinators. Bees are just one example of pollinators, but also included are butterflies, moths, beetles and even flies. Pollination is important for many of the crops, like vegetables and those from trees.
Native plants are being encouraged for usage to help sustain the ecosystem, and the pollinators that are needed. “There’s no bad place to plant a native plant,” says ISU Extension Office County Horticulturist Suzette Striegel.
Striegel pointed towards the decline of Monarch Butterflies. Monarch Butterflies depend upon milkweed for their survival, but humans have become very efficient at eradicating the plant. Striegel used the many, many manicured or well controlled ditches in the state as an example of habitat that is lost to milkweed, resulting in a sharp decline of Monarch Butterflies.
Contrary to our effecient hunt to remove weeds, it may ultimately help the ecosystem and pollinators if landowners could set aside a place to allow those types of plants to grow, in turn helping insects like butterflies and bees.
