What are native plants?
According to the Natural Wildlife Federation, “A plant is considered native if it has occurred naturally in a particular region, ecosystem, or habitat without human introduction.”
An easy way to think about it is if humans had never come to this land, would the plants still be there?
Why Native Plants Matter
Native plants are crucial to our ecosystem for a number of reasons:
- They are host plants, meaning insects use them to lay eggs.
- They provide the proper nutrition our pollinators need.
- Native trees and shrubs provide habitat for birds .
- Many native plants are keystone species, meaning one or more species of insects / animals relies on those plants for survival.
How to choose native plants
It can be intimidating trying to decide what plants to get and where to source them from. We have a few resources on how to go about sourcing native plants.
- We have provided plant lists below to help with planting
- You can check if a plant is native using VASCAN.
- We have written a guide on how to use VASCAN.
- Try to only choose reputable plant sources.
What are cultivars?
Cultivars are a curated version of a plant that has been developed by humans to portray specific characteristics, from colour to number of blooms.
These plants are not beneficial to pollinators, as many will not lay their eggs on cultivars or young caterpillars die consuming the plants. Cultivars can outcompete the native versions of plants, making it harder for them to grow. Additionally, many cultivars do not provide proper pollen nutrition for adult pollinators.
Cultivars can be identified by the fact that they have an attributed name (a name in quotes that follows the Latin name). For example, native Butterfly Milkweed is Asclepias tuberosa, but one of its cultivars is Asclepias tuberosa ‘Hello Yellow’.
Native Plant lists
Not sure which plants should be planted where, what might be easiest, or what might work in a container?
We have you covered.
A Cultivated Art
A Cultivated Art, a local native plant nursery, has a wonderful plant search feature on their website, allowing users to search based on their growing requirements, plant type, size, and more.
Browse their plant search feature here
Ottawa Wildflower Seed Library Plant Lists
As part of her volunteer work with the Ottawa Wildflower Seed Library, Karina created these plant lists thanks to the help of the OWSL volunteers. We have shared them here with permission from the OWSL.
Our favourite native plants
We’ve collected some photos of our own favourite native plants for inspiration.
Maitland Area Pollinator Projects 