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The impact of introduced plants on native biodiversity has emerged as a hot-button issue in ecology. But recent research provides new eviden

How Non-Native Plants Are Contributing to a Global Insect Decline

The impact of introduced plants on native biodiversity has emerged as a hot-button issue in ecology. But recent research provides new evidence that the displacement of native plant communities is a key cause of a collapse in insect populations and is affecting birds as well...

#non-native plants #invasive species #environment #conservation #insect decline #insect #insects #entomology #biodiversity #animals #nature #botany #plants #non-native invasive species

Chicory (Cichorium intybus) Alona Bay, ON

#chicory #botanical #flower #canon photography #botanical photography #ontario #lake superior #non-native plants #road trip

Wildflowers seen behind a coffee shop 🌸

#top left is pasture rose i think #then st johns wort #some type of thistle #big pink one might be joe pye weed?#others weren’t in my field guide #cottagecore #naturecore #wildflowers #plants #native plants #non-native plants #rose #botany

How Invasive Plants Harm the Environment Plants have always spread from one part of the world to another on their own (coconut trees lean ou

#invasive plants #native plants #non-native plants #weeds #weed control #control of invasive plants #Earth #Mother Earth #soil #soil health #wild edible plants #eat your weeds #self-sufficiency #natural farming #no-till gardening

When the big storm swept through, it left an important lesson about survival.

Excerpt from this Op-Ed by Margaret Renkl from the New York Times:

The winter storm that swept in just before Christmas, moving from the West Coast to the East, was a slow-motion devastation. For a week, it was all meteorologists could talk about — temperatures dropping tens of degrees in a matter of minutes, motorists stranded, flights canceled, power disrupted across the land.

The electrical grid was in danger of going down amid unprecedented demand. The Tennessee Valley Authority ordered local power companies to conduct rolling blackouts, the first in its history. Around here, December highs typically reach the 50s — into the 60s on sunny days — but we didn’t get above freezing again until four days after the front arrived. By then, half the evergreen plants in my yard were dead.

And in winter, as it turns out, the plants that didn’t survive the storm were overwhelmingly nonnatives, at least from what I could tell in my admittedly unscientific survey of Nashville vegetation — another sign that these plants did not evolve for this ecosystem. Popular landscaping evergreens like Japanese cedar, skip laurel (which comes from the Mediterranean region), English boxwood and Japanese euonymus are now some dead shade of brown, while the undeterred Eastern red cedars and Southern white pines and American hollies remain a glorious green.

I understand the attachment to plants that have no place in this place. Before the temperatures dropped so low, we had several of them. Some, like the horribly invasive euonymus and nandinas, were planted by this house’s original owners, so long ago that it would take a backhoe to dislodge them. But others we foolishly introduced ourselves. My mother planted the two stands of Japanese aucuba and quite a few yews when we bought this house almost three decades ago, but I can’t blame Mom for the four skip laurels: I planted those. An inept nurseryman told me they were native to Tennessee, and I believed him. These days I know better than to trust a garden center employee without taking the trouble to confirm.

There is room now for even more of the native plants that my husband and I have been cultivating for years. We’ll replace the skip laurels with native mountain laurels, the aucuba with American hollies, the euonymus and nandina with inkberry and devilwood and hobblebush. These plants can play the same landscaping roles as their nonnative counterparts, but unlike the nonnatives, they will also produce flowers and berries that feed an amazing array of insects and songbirds, often during winter and early spring, the times of year when other food sources are scarce.

#tennessee #freeze #non-native plants

Clouded Sulphur Joy

He apparently couldn't believe his luck that he had found teasel with flowers, finally found one to land on and wanted all the flowers at once.

Clouded sulphur butterfly on teasel.

This clouded sulphur butterfly fluttered all over and around and around with apparent excitement. He apparently couldn’t believe his luck that he had found teasel with flowers, finally found one to land on and wanted all the flowers at once.

Standing perfectly still in full sun on gravel along railroad tracks in 97 degrees waiting for this guy to finally land…

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#butterflies #butterfly #clouded sulphur butterfly #invasive species #non-native plants #pollinators #teasel #yellow butterfly #yellow butterfly with spots

Protecting Birds in the Wild# 1-4

The Audubon reminds us of 4 easy ways to protect and aid wild birds who live in your neighborhood.

1. Reduce or eliminate pesticide and herbicide use in your yard. Using fewer chemicals on your plants and soil not only helps the wild birds, bugs and plants, it protects the water sources from poisonous chemicals that eventually find their way into your local water table.

California has required…

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#animal advocacy #animal welfare #birds #invasive species #non-native plants #pesticides #protecting wild birds #The Audubon Society