The Difference Between Native and Neonatal Plants and Why It Matters
For various reasons, including the impact on the environment, there has been a greater focus in horticulture over the past few years on growing native wildflowers, herbs, and other plants.
If this is something you have studied or tried yourself, then you already know that terminology and classifications can be confusing. Here’s what you need to know about the difference between native and neonatal plants and why it’s important.
What are native plants?
When considering native plants and their ecological role, the following science-based definition by Sarah Tangren, Ph.D., chief native species gardener and former senior fellow at the University of Maryland, is helpful:
native plants:
- Occur naturally
- In their ecoregion and habitat where
- During evolutionary time
- They adapted to physical conditions and evolved along with other species in the system.
Bonnie L. Grant, a board-certified urban agronomist, offers a different perspective on native plants in an article for Gardening Know How , noting that these are “species historically recorded in a particular locality, whether through modern sightings or archaeological finds. ”
What are neonatal plants?
Neonative plants are species that originated and grew in one region, but after changing weather conditions and/or human intervention in conditions that made their survival difficult, migrated to a new, more favorable area, Grant explains in the article. They are sometimes referred to as “native invasive species,” she adds.
Exposure to neonatal plants
To clarify, new plants are not the same as “non-native” (sometimes also referred to as “alien”) plants, which are species that humans have introduced to a particular region either on purpose or by accident, according to National Parks data. Service (NPS). Examples of non-native plants in the US include tomatoes and petunias, which have been cultivated for centuries in parts of the country.
Unlike neonatal plants, only a small proportion of non-native plants are invasive. According to NPS , this is one of the reasons why the terms “invasive” and “non-native” cannot be used interchangeably when referring to plants.
As invasive species, some young plants pose a serious threat to their new home, crowding out native species and destroying the entire ecosystem, Grant explains. Ultimately, this can lead to far-reaching consequences, such as negatively affecting crops historically grown in a particular region.