Why Native Plants?
Across Iowa, our native prairie landscape has been mostly eliminated by rural farming and urban development. What green space is present is often landscape of non-native or “alien” species from Europe or Asia and a carpet of turf grass lawns. This dramatic change of our landscape has led to multiple problems, including increased local flood potential, wildlife & habitat loss, decreased biodiversity, and overall a loss of functioning ecosystems.
You can help reduce these problems by planting natives in your yard! Benefits of native plants include:
- Provide food sources for pollinators and birds
- Soak up water better than turf grass. Did you know the original Iowa prairie could infiltrate up to 6 inches of water? To compare, traditional turf grass can only absorb about ¼ inch of rainfall!
- Improve water quality by minimizing stormwater runoff from your house
Prairie plants are well adapted to Iowa weather, meaning they can tolerate heavy rains and hot, dry summers too!
Native plants are those that occur naturally in a region in which they evolved. They are the ecological basis upon which life depends, including birds and people. Without them and the insects that co-evolved with them, local birds cannot survive. Unfortunately, most of the landscaping plants available in nurseries are alien species from other countries. These exotic plants not only sever the food web, but many have become invasive pests, outcompeting native species and degrading habitat in remaining natural areas.
Landscaping choices have meaningful effects on the populations of birds and the insects they need to survive. The bottom line is this—homeowners, landscapers, and local policy makers can benefit birds and other wildlife by simply selecting native plants when making their landscaping decisions.
Restoring native plant habitat is vital to preserving biodiversity. By creating a native plant garden, each patch of habitat becomes part of a collective effort to nurture and sustain the living landscape for birds and other animals.
Landscape Function
Iowa has often been called one of the most hydrologically altered states in the United States. In order to farm the Iowa landscape, wetlands and prairie potholes were drained in central Iowa, and native prairie and woodlands were mostly removed statewide. Tiling in farm fields, and increased impervious surfaces like parking lots, roads, and rooftops in our cities has increased stormwater runoff and Our natural landscape has been replaced by farmland and cities drastically altering how our landscape responds to rain events. Without native vegetation our landscape has become less resilient and less capable of handling storm events leading to increased flooding events. Increased runoff has led to erosion which has greatly decreased our water quality due to sedimentation and increased nutrient loading.
Habitat Loss
The continental United States has lost nearly 150 million acres of habitat & farmland to urban sprawl.
Turf grass covers more than 40 million acres of the United States. That’s more land than the entire state of Iowa which is about 36 million acres in size.
Wildlife
The destruction and removal of native vegetation has a deep impact on native wildlife and pollinators. Plants and insects and other organisms that eat insects have co-evolved over thousands of years. As plants have developed toxins for survival, local wildlife have adapted to be able to tolerate these toxins. For example, Monarch butterflies have adapted to be able to tolerate the toxins of milkweed, and only eat milkweed. By planting non-native plants, local wildlife lose their food resources and habitat. Although birds may eat seeds and berries, birds native to your region will not be able to eat the berries or seeds of a non-native plants because they have not evolved to do so. Many common landscaping plants we find today are from Europe and Asia. Beyond physical appearance, these plants provide few other benefits and may even become invasive outcompeting native plants wildlife depend on to survive.
Ways to Add Native Landscaping at Home
Additional Native Landscaping Resources
