Ask the Expert: Doug Tallamy

Douglas W. Tallamy is professor and chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware in Newark . He has written more than 65 research articles and has instruct courses in worm taxonomy , behavioural ecology , and other subjects . primary among his research goal is to better understand the many way that insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities .

We have always known that gardens are for our use ; it is only recently that we have recognized their important ecologic role , as well . Is it possible to reconstruct ecosystem function in your landscape painting and still include some non - native ornamental ? Of course , but to do that , you need to interpret what each industrial plant mintage is contributing to your local ecosystem .

Crape myrtle ( Lagerstroemiaspp . and cvs . , USDA Hardiness Zones 7–9 ) , for example , is an staggeringly popular landscape plant because it has a nice habit , beautiful flush , and adorable bark . But it contributes almost nothing to the food vane in your garden . If every plant in your 1000 were a crape Vinca minor , you would have no solid food web and , thus , no birds , butterflies , or other beneficial wildlife . Does that have in mind you ca n’t have one or two crape myrtles ? No . Right now , though , about 80 percent of the works in our suburban landscape are Asian ornamentals , like French pancake myrtle . We involve to equilibrise the number of decorative plant in our garden with plants that are contributing in ecologically important ways ; otherwise , we will have beautiful but sterile landscapes .

Pamela Daugherty , Evansville , Indiana

There are no exhaustive studies comparing natives to their cultivar that I know of , but I can make some predictions . Because dirt ball that eat leaves select host plants free-base on leaf chemistry , we can forebode how they will do on cultivars by predicting how much the foliage chemistry was change during the founding of the cultivar .

Many cultivar are lifelike variants that were set up in nature and then brought into cultivation . These should be just as productive as the straight species because there was no active upbringing course of study that might have change the leaf chemistry . If a cultivar is breed to be fat alternatively of penny-pinching ( or breed for any form alteration ) , I doubt if leafage chemistry would have changed much and so it should be just as productive . If leaf color is changed ( a green folio turned into a purple or variegated leaf ) , however , then the folio chemistry is undoubtedly changed . Purple leaves are stretch with anthocyanins , chemical substance that deter insect eating . Variegated leaves have less chlorophyll and are probably less nutritious . Such cultivars are potential to be less generative in term of supporting insect herbivores .

Most cultivars focalize on flowers , making them larger or change their coloring material . These probably have an impact on pollinators , particularly if the genetic change results in less nectar or pollen production , as it often does . Another lineament of cultivars is that they are usually propagated clonally . We know that load up the landscape with plants that have no genetic sport is not a good idea .

Having said all of that , if your choice is between a cultivar of a local native plant and a plant from Asia , I would always take the native cultivar .

Scotty Sutherland , Cookeville , Tennessee

MostRibesspecies are part of the life story oscillation of blank pine blister rust , and we do n’t want to advance the spread of that disease . ( Ribesspecies do not answer as host for cedar Malus pumila rust . ) But there are some resistant varieties ofRibesthat do n’t support the disease ; one of the best is ‘ Consort ’ , so feel gratuitous to use that in your garden .

Barbara Summit , Glenwood Springs , Colorado

This will depend on your personal goals . Every time that you add a fertile native plant to your landscape painting you improve your local food web . mostly mouth , woody plants corroborate more brute coinage than annuals or perennials , but flowering plant are vital to our pollinators . The important affair is to get more flora of both types into our garden . Most landscapes in our eastern suburbs are more than 90 per centum lawn , which provides neither food nor shelter for most species .

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