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Native plants
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| Last week's article about daisies being edible, mentioned also
that those lovely white flowers were not native in Seattle. But the
very question of what constitutes a native plant can be unclear. Of people,
we tend to say "she was born here; she's a native." On the other hand,
we speak of "native Americans" such as the Duwamish. Regarding
wild plants and animals, the custom is to restrict the term native to
those species which grew wild here in the pre-European period. That is,
Seattle native plants are those that grew here from the last glaciation
until roughly the 1850s. Since the 1850s, many non-native species have
been introduced and become naturalized, growing fully wild. Examples
obvious to us all include dandelion, Himalayan blackberry, Scotch
broom, English ivy, and (choking our lakes) Eurasian water-milfoil (PHOTO ABOVE). This
means if you see a plant growing wild, you don't necessarily know it is
native. And if you don't find a plant species growing wild here now, that
doesn't mean it didn't once --because hundreds of former Seattle native
plants have been extirpated by development; and hundreds of
non-native species are now fully naturalized here. |
| Seattle's wild plant population is not extraordinary in this
respect. Most big cities probably have similarly undergone
transformations wherein the relatively weak or rare natives were replaced by
stronger, aggressive, persistent non-natives. |
Since many of us cherish our native flora and fauna, and we desire
to encourage it, a very useful if not indispensable tool is an
accurate checklist: what plants were originally wild here, what presently
grows wild, what is still left of the natives, what is reseeding, what is
gaining ground, what is waning, etc. Let's take one example. In the
"original" Seattle ten or eleven fern species grew here. Presently, only seven do.
But no non-native species has become naturalized. Our missing or
extirpated native ferns are surely two species of grape fern
(Botrychium), and the maidenhair spleenwort
(Asplenium Trichomanes). The adder's tongue
(Ophioglossum vulgatum) might have once grown here, but there is
no certainty. Anyhow, I keep track Seattle's fluctuating plant
population, and want to close by asserting that there is no point in trying to
destroy the non-native wild plants, while replanting the lost natives.
Some idealistic people actually try doing this. What we should work for,
is healthy plant communities, with a blend of native as well as
naturalized species. To help the underdogs, and slow the aggressors somewhat, is
a reasonable approach.
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(originally published in The Seattle Weekly, June 1996)
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