There’s been a lively discussion on permaculturists’ occasional planting of introduced species known to naturalize (or, in loaded terms, invasive species) at this blog. Some there have disputed that exotics can play critical roles in habitat, and I posted the words below to show that removal of exotics can be very damaging to native wildlife:
Here are hard data on introduced plants that have rapidly formed partnerships with native insects, from a paper, “Exotics as Host Plants of the California Butterfly Fauna,” by Sherri Graves and Arthur Shapiro, in Biological Conservation (2003) 110:413-433. It was sent to me by Mary McAllister, a SF blogger (http://milliontrees.me) concerned about wholesale removal of healthy exotic trees from large swaths of rural SF-area parks. Other ecologists questioning the wisdom of natives-only policies are Mark Davis, Dov Sax, Erle Ellis, Matt Chew, and Peter Del Tredici, if you want to find papers by them. There is, indeed, widespread criticism of invasion biology by biologists.
Dr Shapiro is an ecologist at UC-Davis. His findings:
In 1925, California had 292 species of naturalized exotic plants. In 1993, there were 1057. So about 75% of California’s exotics have been there less than a century. Yet overall, 32% of California’s native butterfly species are now feeding or breeding in non-native plants. Some specifics:
Yellow star thistle, a noted pest plant, is a major nectar source for many central valley and foothill butterflies. Eucalyptus is a major roosting species for Monarchs now that native trees have been decimated by logging and development along Monarch migration routes. Eucs may have prevented great reduction of Monarch populations. (I’ve seen a photo of thousands of Monarchs in a Euc.)
Marshland butterfly species, greatly reduced by development, have increased again by breeding and feeding on introduced wetland plants, and these non-natives stay green longer than the natives once did, allowing extension of the breeding season. These introduced hosts may have been critical for the survival of wetland butterflies decimated by development. In at least two, and possibly more cases, exotics allowed other butterfly species to extend their breeding from 2 to 4-6 or more generations per year, helping their populations rebound.
In the city of Davis, 29 of 32 butterfly species breed on introduced plants. 13 of them have no known native hosts in Davis at all. This suggests that introduced plants have prevented the extinction of local butterfly populations in developed areas. Alfalfa and vetch fields have been colonized by at least 12 species of butterflies, with extremely dense populations.
Shapiro shows many other cases where native butterflies are feeding and breeding on introduced plants like Cork oak, passionflower, Bermuda grass, Senna, Rumex, as well as Monterey pine outside of its natural range. On the downside, Shapiro noted two cases of butterflies breeding on exotics that were toxic to larvae, wasting those breedings. But the overall finding was that many species of introduced plants could each support many species of insects, and individual species of insects were able to feed on multiple introduced species.
There are many papers like this. Multiply this California paper on one order of bugs by 50 states and all the insect orders, and you have thousands of insect species relying, critically, on thousands of introduced plant species.
What is interesting here is that, like native enthusiast Doug Tallamy, Art Shapiro is an entomologist, yet the two come to opposite conclusions based on hard data. I think the data support both: native plants are critical for insect health, and exotics have rapidly co-evolved with many species of native insects for critical support, especially in cases where development has destroyed local hosts.
So I think it’s time to start dialing down the rhetoric about exotics breaking up native-species partnerships. In fact, to me this raises an irony. This paper shows that when development or farming has eliminated native hosts, removal of large areas of introduced plants can destroy the only available hosts for native insects. So I’d like to turn around the whole question raised by this blog: We have absolutely no evidence that permaculturists (as opposed to, say, nurseries) have ever introduced a species that has later escaped into the wild from their planting. That’s just a “what if” scenario with no support for it, so, quoting Beatriz (a poster at the above blog): “Where are the DATA” for this assertion?
But we know very definitely that natives-only people have removed from large areas, wholesale, valuable host species, like Eucalyptus, star thistle, and many others. Dr. Shapiro and many others have expressed abhorrence for this very damaging practice: Seehttp://milliontrees.me/2011/10/10/professor-arthur-shapiros-comment-on-the-environmental-impact-report-for-the-natural-areas-program/.
Permaculturists, unlike nativists, are not going into wild and semi-wild lands and exterminating valuable host species. Permies don’t have the kind of hubris that says we know what’s best for wild land (we have other forms of hubris!). We restrict our activities to planting valuable wildlife species in yards, farms, and other highly developed areas. We’re taught to stay out of the bush, as Mollison says. That is a far more conservative and safe action than messing around in the wild.
I think we can safely conclude that native plant enthusiasts have done far more damage to native insect populations than any permaculturists, real damage at scale, versus hypothetical damage. And I am grateful to Sue’s blog for the irony of helping to point that out.
Look, we’re all human, and we tinker with things we don’t understand, as part of our nature. Permaculturists are learning from nativists that it’s a bad idea to plant introduced species known to be local “naturalizers,” to use a neutral term. And I hope the nativists (and I am a native plant lover) will learn that it is equally unwise to exterminate naturalized species, because the roles of those species are not understood, but are known now to often be critical hosts to many natives. We have a lot to learn.
were there previously not enuf host species to support monarch feeding and breeding?
“invasives” are simply replacing the original hosts which were doing just fine w/ providing preferred habitat for any particular animal, insect or whatever. “invasives” are invasive because they’re good at “taking over”. indeed, they will provide food and breeding sites for monarchs, for eg, but the monarchs will need time to adapt to the new “invasive” host.
pythons in the everglades. you name it. invasives are invasive.
As the article (and others on this site) says, non-natives rarely displace native species unless there has been disturbance or a new resource made available such as pollution or fertilizer runoff that is not being used by the natives. Otherwise the natives could not easily be displaced, as they are better adapted to the habitat and have far more partner species to support them. You ask, were there previously not enough host species? Exactly. Logging, road building, farming, and other disturbance and clearing almost always happens first, and then a species such as Euc moves into the damaged habitat. The article by Shapiro that I cite shows that when natives are removed, which they very often are, exotics can become the only food source available for native insects. It’s almost never as simple as invasives “simply replacing the original hosts.” The host habitat is first damaged, eliminated, or altered (usually by humans, sometimes by acts of nature), which opens niches for new species. Intact ecosystems are well known to be very hard to invade because all resources are being used by those well-adapted natives. Break that system via disturbance, and new species now become better adapted. Failure to understand that, and being stuck in an “invasives are invasive” mindset will never, ever, solve the problem of native species loss. Grasping some basic ecological principles will help much more than hating introduced species.
thanks for the reply.
ok. got it for undisturbed habitat. i guess what i’m thinking about is disturbed habitat which is where all of us live, whether in town or country.
i live in the country. heavy coniferous interior rainforest. been logged several times since the area was settled. we humans have introduced our favored “invasives” into the towns and countryside, from yellow flag iris to comfrey to mints to japanese knotweed to—–. mallow, oxeye, hawkweed, knapweed, etc, etc, etc abound and increase exponentially yr by yr. they are considered invasives around here because they take over and are essentially impossible to control because they are very good at spreading by the various means they’ve adapted. knapweed roots secrete substance that repels potential competitors and produce staggering amounts of tiny seed that’s viable for 10 yrs. i know bees like knapweed. if knapweed was eliminated from any particular ecosystem, bees would find another source of nectar. but i’m sure you already know all this.
my take is that we need to curtail the spread of the likes of knapweed, et al. some of my neighbors agree, some don’t. i know there is biological “control” for knapweed. i haven’t seen evidence that it’s effective. what do we do? live w/ it? leave it to the next generation?
i’m interested in your thots, randy
Some species are generalists–they can eat a range of different things. Many other species can use different plants as adults but not at a larval stage–they are entirely dependent on one type of plant. Monarchs and milkweed is a classic example. I don’t pretend to have answers, but I do think we can start by acknowledging that all plants do not have the same value to wildlife and using natives in our gardens, parks, etc. as much as possible.
I discovered your work by landing on this specific page while researching what non-native plants monarchs are attracted to. In a (North American) world obsessed with a somewhat “native” only mentality, I feel, is not conducive with the reality that nature will always take care of itself. I found your words refreshing! The Permaculture City will have to be the next book purchase for my library!
I am only in the research phase of preparing an article for my website and if you are able, I would like to touch base with you. (If interested , my email is in the required fields below.) This is something I wrote for my blog you may find interesting. https://www.ediblewildfood.com/blog/2018/03/in-defence-of-invasive-plants/