In recent years, our region (Upper Midwest, United States) has benefitted from increasing awareness of native plants and initiatives such as plantings on public and private land to increase their extent and many benefits. However, while this region historically featured a rich tapestry of forest, woodland, wetland and aquatic plant communities, most planting/restoration efforts on upland areas have involved native herbaceous prairie grasses and forbs. Prairie species are indeed compelling choices for a native planting. Prairie restoration projects can help to reverse the historical near complete destruction of prairies as a consequence of agricultural and urban development. Prairie plants respond relatively fast, often maturing within just a couple of years to beautify the landscape with rich displays of flowers and foliage textures while also providing wildlife habitat and many other benefits.
Native woody plants, however, deserve more attention. Successive waves of introduced tree pathogens and pests have selectively killed off millions of forest canopy trees, an issue that may be addressed in part through planting of a wider diversity of native tree species. Land use changes have also tended to impede the natural reproduction of Oaks (Quercus spp.), the native trees arguably having the greatest ecological value. Native shrubs have likewise suffered from environmental change. Millions of acres of forest and woodland have been severely degraded by the advance of non-native, invasive shrubs such as Common Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica), Amur Honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) and Burning Bush (Euonymus alatus). Open areas and property boundaries in urban and suburban areas often come to be colonized by these invasive shrubs along with just a few weedy native trees, such as Boxelder (Acer negundo) and Black Walnut (Juglans nigra).
The following lists particularly compelling features of native shrubs as home garden and habitat restoration plants:
- Bird food sources – many native shrubs provide berries as food sources for birds and other wildlife, in some cases persisting on the plant well into the lean winter months (e.g. Highbush Cranberry [Viburnum trilobum])
- Insect nectar and foliage hosts –