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A review by maxstone98
Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens by Douglas W. Tallamy
5.0
Not a 5 star read in the sense of "oh my god this was amazingly written", but 5 stars in the sense of enhancing my understanding of how the world works.
In general, I'd say "native" seemed to me like a good feature of a plant, in a way that "organic" seems like a good feature of food, but I didn't really understand why it was so important (and hence kind of wondered in fact *whether* it was so important), beyond avoiding introducing species to places that end up totaling dominating that area.
It's the insects!
The main things I was missing were:
-most plants try to not be too easily digestible, in general (as opposed to their fruits or whatever), by every insect so they don't get gobbled up. But a plant species generally can't keep itself inedible to all insects; something evolves to be able to eat a type of plant, and this is a co-evolution that takes place over thousands of years or longer
-when you move a plant to a new area, it isn't generally more fit for that environment (a point I have been confused about; in a race where the victor is most adapted to an environment, why should a non-native plant or animal be the victor?), but it *is* less susceptible to being eaten by insects, because the insects that evolved over thousands or more years to digest it aren't around.
-"insect resistant" seems like a really good feature of a plant! (that you put in your yard). but it is not because...
-insects are mostly how the energy gets from the sun --> plants --> (insects) --> bigger critters like birds. Plants that don't feed insects still do some useful things for birds, like grow berries and provide shelter, but are missing a key ingredient, which is the protein/fat the birds get from eating insects, and without which they can't rear their young
-so, you need lots of insects. and to have lots of insects you need native plants. In fact the author goes so far as so pretty much define native plants as ones that local insects can feed on, which I think makes sense because otherwise the word "native" is pretty vague.
The author further notes that you can actually accomplish this rearing of insects and hence other fauna in a pretty small area, like your yard.
And then if you live in the northeast US, there's tons of info about particular plants (especially trees) and particular insects. One punchline is: oaks are awesome. Not sure how useful these lists are if you live elsewhere.
In general, I'd say "native" seemed to me like a good feature of a plant, in a way that "organic" seems like a good feature of food, but I didn't really understand why it was so important (and hence kind of wondered in fact *whether* it was so important), beyond avoiding introducing species to places that end up totaling dominating that area.
It's the insects!
The main things I was missing were:
-most plants try to not be too easily digestible, in general (as opposed to their fruits or whatever), by every insect so they don't get gobbled up. But a plant species generally can't keep itself inedible to all insects; something evolves to be able to eat a type of plant, and this is a co-evolution that takes place over thousands of years or longer
-when you move a plant to a new area, it isn't generally more fit for that environment (a point I have been confused about; in a race where the victor is most adapted to an environment, why should a non-native plant or animal be the victor?), but it *is* less susceptible to being eaten by insects, because the insects that evolved over thousands or more years to digest it aren't around.
-"insect resistant" seems like a really good feature of a plant! (that you put in your yard). but it is not because...
-insects are mostly how the energy gets from the sun --> plants --> (insects) --> bigger critters like birds. Plants that don't feed insects still do some useful things for birds, like grow berries and provide shelter, but are missing a key ingredient, which is the protein/fat the birds get from eating insects, and without which they can't rear their young
-so, you need lots of insects. and to have lots of insects you need native plants. In fact the author goes so far as so pretty much define native plants as ones that local insects can feed on, which I think makes sense because otherwise the word "native" is pretty vague.
The author further notes that you can actually accomplish this rearing of insects and hence other fauna in a pretty small area, like your yard.
And then if you live in the northeast US, there's tons of info about particular plants (especially trees) and particular insects. One punchline is: oaks are awesome. Not sure how useful these lists are if you live elsewhere.