Hey there! I totally get being unfamiliar with native plants—it's a huge topic! Where I live, we've got a lot of Eastern Red Cedars (Juniperus virginiana) and they're pretty cool because they're not just native but also super adaptable. They can grow in all sorts of conditions, which is amazing. I'm curious, are you looking to learn about native plants for gardening, or just out of general interest? If it's for gardening, you might want to check out Sunchokes (Helianthus tuberosus) like someone mentioned in another post. They're not only native but also edible and pretty easy to grow. What about you? Have you noticed any plants around your area that you're curious about? I'd love to hear more and maybe we can figure out together if they're native or not!

Hey! I totally relate to being new to the world of native plants. Where I live, I've noticed a lot of Black-Eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta) popping up everywhere, especially in the summer. They're really striking with their bright yellow petals and dark centers. I read that they're not just pretty but also great for supporting local pollinators like bees and butterflies. Have you seen any Black-Eyed Susans or similar flowers around your area? It's fascinating to learn how these plants contribute to our local ecosystems. Let me know if you spot any interesting plants, and maybe we can help each other identify them!

Hi, sure! So a good place to start is https://www.epa.gov/eco-research/ecoregions-north-america to pinpoint where you are in terms of specific environments and which plants are most common. So for me it’s eco region 8: eastern temperate forests. Now that is just a broad category and doesn’t reflect smaller variations in environments. But if you look up ecoregion 8 you get this: https://www.nwf.org/-/media/Documents/PDFs/Garden-for-Wildlife/Keystone-Plants/NWF-GFW-keystone-plant-list-ecoregion-8-eastern-temperate-forests.ashx which is a list of important species of plants in the area. Which great and all but what’s the important about it? So native plant prairies are what I’m going to narrow in on for a second. These plants communities have deep roots between 3-15 feet deep. Roots like that pull up nutrients from deep in the earth, enriching the soil, stabilize the soil, but also make it more permeable to rain (a field of regular grass is about as impermeable as a concrete parking lot, the water will run off into the sewers making floods during heavy rain more likely, while the prairie plant roots allow water into the soil as deep as the roots go, this gets more water into the the aquifer for wells as well as filtering it better), and finally prairie plants lower the temperature around them sort of like shade from a tree. If you’ve even touched pavement on a hot sunny day you know it’s much hotter than air temps. And that heat radiates into buildings and around air conditioners making them less efficient. So prairie plants reflect sunlight before it can heat the ground as well as release moisture into the air through transpiration. So on a 90° day the prairie area temp will just be 90° while short grass or concrete roads and buildings can be as hot as 120°-140°. Plus a native prairie isn’t just grass, lots of flowers that support pollinators, animals including American bison and other important and tasty animals, all while taking pretty much 0 effort. Many like milkweed have helpful applications for humans too. The milkweed seed pod fluff is comparable to down insulation and was actually collected during WW2 to make life jackets for the American military due to its light water proof nature.