Native Plants Sustain by Barbara Collier

As our ancestors explored and mapped the world, the stars in the sky were essential to navigation. Clara Lucas Balfour wrote, “What a desolate place would be a world without a flower! It would be a face without a smile, a feast without a welcome. Are not flowers the stars of the earth, and are not our stars the flowers of the heavens?” Our ancestors traveled and marveled at the beauty and wonder of our skies and the natural world. We should be also amazed as we contemplate the contributions of Bent Tree’s native plants. Stars are essential to navigation and native plants are essential to sustain pollinators. To ‘sustain’ means to cause or allow something to continue for a period of time, to keep alive.

Native plants are simply plants that have naturally occurred in a place for long enough to have developed symbiotic relationships with the other living organisms of that place. Given these mutually beneficial relationships, the native plants sustain the life of that place in ways that non-native (or exotic) plants cannot.

One way that native plants sustain a place is by enriching and protecting the soil beneath our feet with deep root systems. Comparatively, stilt grass is a common invasive grass in Bent Tree that has a very shallow root system and is very easy to pull up. When you try -try being the key word- try to pull a native grass, the roots have such a solid grasp of the soil that they are difficult, if not impossible, to pull by hand. It takes a strong shovel to dig out native grasses. They are as embedded in our natural ecosystem as our mighty deciduous trees. That strong root system benefits the soil to such a degree that the rewards of maintaining a native grass area as opposed to letting stilt grass grow are quite numerous. Run off, erosion? Grow native grasses. Water Conservation? Grow native grasses. Air quality? Grow native grasses. Want to provide an area for pollinators? Grow native grasses. Have low quality soil? You know what to do!

When we plant a garden specifically for pollinators, we are quick to imagine a beautiful picture of little bumble bees bumbling about, butterflies on the wing dancing merrily around one another and a flower’s brilliant blooms. A light blue sky filled with puffy, perfect clouds moving with a welcome breeze, and warm sunshine reddening one’s face. This picture-perfect image can be a harsh illusion though, depending on where the plants were purchased. Many big box stores and other growers are not managing the blooms that benefit pollinators in a sustaining way. Mass growers that supply the big box stores often use pesticides that can last 18 months in the plant. These plants therefore actually cause the death of the very pollinators they should be supporting. Choosing to purchase from a conscientious grower makes the difference in whether plants are truly sustaining.

A pollinator garden can only really sustain pollinators if it holds true to Cambridge’s most fundamental meaning of the word sustain. To cause, to allow something to continue, to keep alive our pollinators a garden must support and allow caterpillar eggs and caterpillars themselves. A native plant holds the leaves that very hungry little caterpillars need to keep alive for their short life spans. The stems of the native plants give the soon to be butterflies and moths a home to allow the caterpillar to continue for a period of time. A home in which to build a case, or a web, in which they will grow, in which they will change. Celebrate the eaten leaves because it means your plants are truly contributing. As you share, caterpillars are given a chance to become the beautiful, flying pollinators they are meant to be.

Fireflies are among the most beloved and recognized flying wonders after our sun sets and the stars are given their chance to light up the dark skies. The Great Smoky Mountain National Park holds a lottery each year to view one of the 19 species of fireflies that call it home. A lottery! You have to win a lottery to see the beautiful display that our little beetle beauties can offer. Native plants provide the needs for the fireflies’ larval stage. These little baby fireflies are likely unrecognized as fireflies at all, seen as wiggly things that are unwanted and to be eliminated. But that first stage of our luminescent wonders is the key to supporting them. Their larval “baby” stage is much longer than their on the bright night displays. The way to sustain their population here in Bent Tree is to have an area near your native grasses and native flowers that supports the leaf litter they call home. What does that look like? Perhaps, 3 feet away, or maybe around the flowers to help with preserving rainwater, that way releasing the rainwater slowly into your garden so that you never have to turn on a hose. Or perhaps, in the back of your home on that steep area that looks beautiful in the fall when the leaves blow in the wind and seem to gather in the perfect spot. One other key way to sustain our fireflies is to minimize night time lights. To see their beautiful bioluminescence might be reason enough to flip the light switch off. Knowing the fireflies need the darkness to find each other and reproduce is another reason.

Early mornings with native plants can be spectacular! The Carolina Wrens are about to wake the world with their melodies. The sky is brightening, and a few, select, breathtaking native blooms have been open all night. They are in absolute sync with the natural circadian rhythm that our native flowers have developed to support nocturnal moths, and our tiniest of awe-inspiring flying beauties, our super migrators, the hummingbirds. These super-fast, high energy, and hungry tiny birds wake before the wrens breakfast has been out and ready all night, in a shining bloom that closes during the heat of the day.

As the afternoon sun is high in the sky you may enjoy fishing, kayaking, or walking. Watching your native plants can demonstrate the textbook “food web”, the never-ending balance of nature and wildlife. You can have a front row seat to this eye-opening adventure. The swooping of birds, the quickness of their wings, taking only what is needed to sustain their nestlings is the pride of a native gardener. Watch the bee sustain the flower through pollination. See the brightly colored non-stinging wasps side by side with butterflies, in the community of those who may spend their entire life in your yard. Your yard is indeed its own universe!

For the mosquitoes out during the day, it is not so peaceful. There are voracious Meadowhawks, Dashers, and the aptly called Dragonhunters, hunting mosquitoes at a staggering rate of 35 miles per hour. Your native plant garden will attract many dragonflies that will stay all afternoon catching those pesky mosquitoes. That helps to create a more friendly environment for everyone! The native plant garden will also have plenty of mantises. Praying mantises are taking care of another pesky, uninvited guest, flies! To watch the speed of a praying mantis devour the pesky fly is almost comical. The perfectly camouflaged hunter is benefiting and helping to keep your native garden in an ecosystem balance that native plants can bring.

A delightful welcome visitor to your native garden would be the box turtle. The box turtle adults are always thought of as a snail loving, mushroom eating, shelled, and shy part of wildlife. The box turtle hatchlings are highly carnivorous, though. So again, in the food web, the next generation is dependent on healthy environmental factors, of which the native, pesticide free, plants offer.

Throughout the day, in every season of the year, native plants enrich the beauty and the wildlife ecosystem within Bent Tree. For bees and birds to bears and bats our native plant garden helps sustain our wildlife for upcoming generations.