If you’ve logged into any of the major social media platforms lately, and you get plant-related content in your feed, chances are you’ve heard the claim that natives are better for the local ecology. They’re also apparently adapted to local soil and climatic conditions, they’re low maintenance, and they are able to single-handedly combat climate change with their magical powers.
Rainbow lorikeets love bottlebrush flowers, which are native to Australia. https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/rainbow-lorikeet-on-callistemon-south-coast-1655894935
Evaluating the Claims
But are these claims true? Or do we need to be a bit more thoughtful here? Let’s explore these claims and see if they hold up in the real world.
As much as I love science, I’m not going to be relying on studies to make my point here. Anybody who has spent time in a garden will immediately be able to understand the truth in what I’m about to say.
The information you’re about to read is based on my own experiences from over 10 years working as a landscape maintenance horticulturist working in gardens long after the designers and landscapers forgot about the projects. It’s also based on conversations I’ve had with a number of ecologists, horticulturists, naturalists, and eco-warriors. Even if we all have our own individual opinions and nobody ever agrees, the basic mechanics of ecology are something we can all agree on.
Rainbow lorikeets love feeding on aloe plants, which often flower during winter when food can be scarce. https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/rainbow-lorikeet-perched-on-some-flowing-490426159
The Beauty of Australian Native Plants
First of all, it’s important to acknowledge that our Aussie native plants are amazing. From members of the Myrtaceae family like lilly pillies, eucalypts, callistemons and tea trees to Proteaceae members like banksias, warratahs and grevilleas, to Asteraceae members like yellow buttons and paper daisies, our native flora have adapted to the harsh conditions of the Australian outback.
There are no other plants quite like them in the world, and it fills our hearts with joy to see them in Australian gardens, but especially when we see them being appreciated in overseas gardens. When my wife and I were travelling through Greece, seeing all of the eucalypts taking over the landscape almost brought tears to our eyes. Sure, they’re technically weeds over there, but these plants are the pride and joy of Australians.
Connection to the Land
Indigenous Australians and non-indigenous Australians feel a connection to the land and to these plants, although Indigenous Australians have traditionally had an even closer relationship with them as they were living as one with the land for over 40,000 years.
In a lot of ways, they were a lot smarter than the Europeans, who have tried to impose their own beliefs on the land, such as the ideas of four seasons which don’t always apply here as they do overseas. You’d certainly never see permanent dwellings being built on floodplains before Europeans arrived.
The Urban Challenge
But now that we have created urban areas, I’d like to point out that we can never go backwards, only forwards. The fact that there is traffic, bitumen, and loud noises such as mowers and chainsaws means that the flora and fauna that used to live here no longer flourish.
Bell birds are pushed out, and minor birds take their place. Numbats and wombats cannot find safety, but possums seem to do just fine.
This exotic shrub is a boon for wildlife, with prolific flowering to complement the callistemons in the background. Cosmic White™ Rhaphiolepis indica‘RAPH01’ PBR. https://www.ozbreed.com.au/plant-ranges/hardy-exotic-range/cosmic-white-rhaphiolepis/
Native, Endemic, and Exotic: Defining the Terms
Before we move on, let’s define a few terms here. A native plant is a plant from anywhere in Australia, from the sandy deserts of southern Western Australia to the rainforests of tropical Queensland.
Obviously, a paper daisy from WA is not adapted to the humidity and rainfall experienced in the top end, and neither is an Alpinia ginger from the tropics adapted to the desert. The term “native” in a country as large as Australia is pretty useless, except from a cultural perspective.
Meanwhile, “indigenous” means that a plant or animal is naturally found in a region, and “endemic” means that a plant or animal is only naturally present in a particular region. For example, kangaroo grass is indigenous to Western Australia, but is also present in many parts of the country and also Southern Africa. You could say kangaroo grass is endemic to Australia and South Africa, but you wouldn’t say that it’s endemic to WA, because that’s not the only place it’s indigenous to.
Shout out to my ecologist friend Dr Ian Smith for clearing this concept up for me.
“Exotic” plants are simply plants that come from another country. It could be any region, whether that’s the jungles of Borneo or the dry habitats of the Mediterranean. Both of these climates have similar conditions in different parts of Australia where similar plants can thrive. And with the power of breeding, plants can live in a wider range of conditions.
The Role of Ephemeral Plants
It’s important to note that death is built into natural systems. Most areas of Australia never get as cold as Europe, so we don’t really have true annuals which die in winter. Instead, we have what I like to call “ephemeral plants” which live for a few years while conditions are good, and then give up during a harsh year, when there’s a big drought or flood.
Their strategy is to release enough seeds to replace them and these plants live fast and die young, similar to the annuals we see overseas but on a more fluid timeframe.
These ephemeral plants are usually very prolific in their flowering, fruiting and seeding, and provide incredible resources for wildlife. By all means, you should include them in your gardens as they’re amazing. But you’ll probably need to replace them every few years as you’ll turn around and find a bunch of them dead one day. That’s not a problem as long as you’ve budgeted for replacing them.
Of course, this isn’t the case for all native plants. As you keep reading, you’ll see that my point is that artificial categories like “native” are unhelpful in the real world, and that horticulture is a lot more nuanced than you may get the impression from listening to certain social media influencers and YouTubers.
Propagation and Cultivated Varieties
Now, growing plants by seed is not the only way to propagate them. You can also propagate plants by dividing rhizomes, as in the case of gingers, lomandras and kangaroo paws. You can propagate woody plants by cutting, and tissue culture labs can clone plants by taking tiny amounts of stems cells from a mother plant and growing them in a sterile environment.
Lomandras are great habitat for a wide range of native wildlife, including lizards, frogs, small birds and insects; especially when densely planted. Tanika® Lomandra longifolia‘LM300’. https://www.ozbreed.com.au/plant-ranges/strappy-leaf-plants/tanika-lomandra/
Side note: make sure you have the right to propagate plants. Commercial projects do not have the right to propagate plants with Plant Breeders Rights (PBR) without the correct permissions.
I see a lot of hysteria around tissue culture and cultivated varieties when compared with seed-grown plants. They have a reputation for being less beneficial for ecology. I have found this to be a fair call on occasions, such as highly incestuous ornamental cross-breeds. On other occasions it’s totally false, with many cultivars being a beacon for wildlife.
At the end of the day, fauna are looking for food and habitat resources like vegetation, pollen, nectar, fruits, seeds, and so forth. They are more concerned with whether the food is palatable, whether their mouth parts are compatible with the food source, and whether they can physically fit into the habitat.
Generalist vs Specialist Relationships
Now, there’s a difference between generalist and specialist resources for biodiversity. Native hoverflies, beneficial beetles, rainbow lorikeets and micro wasps are all pretty happy to pollinate whatever open flowers are available – sometimes beetles will even break through flower petals to get to the good stuff if options are limited.
But specialist flora-fauna relationships do exist, such as certain butterflies or moths and certain host plants where they like to lay their eggs, or certain flowers which they prefer to pollinate. Simply planting “native or endemic” plants isn’t enough to support these critters – you need to actually research these specific relationships in your local area.
The Role of Exotic Plants
So where do exotic plants, which come from other countries, fit into all of this? Are they good for ecology or not?
Anybody who thinks exotics are useless has never spent enough time in a variety of gardens. Take a look at a flowering parsley plant, or a golden diosma, or a lavender, or a duranta. These plants all come from overseas and our local insects absolutely flock to them.
Embracing Diversity in Gardens
All of this is not to say that native and exotic plants are bad, or that endemics are good, or vice versa. My point is that we need to understand each plant we specify, its needs, and the functions that it provides.
The terms “native,” “endemic,” “indigenous,” and “exotic” are all very meaningful to us as humans, but they don’t really apply in nature which is always trying to find stability but is in a constant state of change – whether those changes are happening slowly or rapidly.
Plants have always spread from one place to another with the help of birds, bats, mammals, and even through their own buoyancy on the waves. It’s just that it’s happening much more quickly now through the sometimes intentional and sometimes unintentional help of humans.
The only reason lantana is such an invasive weed in Queensland is because the pollinators love the flowers so much and our native birds can’t get enough of the berries. It doesn’t matter how much money is sunk into managing the weed, as long as there are a bunch of seeds somewhere, it’s only a matter of time until it takes off again.
A Personal Note
If you feel the need to rip on somebody because they wanted to plant exotic plants and that doesn’t live up to your own values, consider how you’re trying to force your view onto them instead of appreciating the diversity of thought and belief.
Some people love their native gardens, and others love a manicured lawn with stripes in it. Different strokes for different folks.
I’d like to encourage you to stay curious instead of judgmental, because you’ll not only be happier, but you’ll also become a better horticulturist and ecologist over a long time frame. We never stop learning in this game.