We Need to Ask the Right Questions

SE blueberry bee on my non-native morning glory

Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow - A non-native shrub

On social media pages devoted to the use of native plants in landscapes, I often see the wrong questions asked - especially from folks asking for an identity of a plant that has "appeared" in their landscapes. It often is: "Is this a Native"?, followed by "Should I pull it out"?  Rarely is the first question: "What is the value of this plant"? Followed by "Should I encourage it, limit its presence, or pull it out aggressively"?
I have been intimately entwined in the native plant movement for most of my adult career - and in some ways, my entire life. I've written extensively over the years about native plants and wildlife, I've founded a program that certified landscapes as wildlife habitat, and I speak throughout Florida on the concept of creating living landscapes. I'm largely on board with the native plant purists, but I've also become more radical in my more-mature years. The issue isn't whether it's native or not, it's whether it has a real and positive role in your overall landscape plan. Simple nativity doesn't determine that.
There are those that espouse the "serendipity" model of landscaping - letting whatever takes up residence remain as long as it is native, or at least doing no harm. I am not in that camp. I believe that we work to achieve goals. Is it a landscape that favors pollinators or one largely planted to serve songbirds. It is not the same landscape plan. If birds, which ones? My former landscape was absolutely perfect for migratory songbirds and I relished their presence twice a year. It just wasn't ideal for cardinals or mockingbirds. In the 12 years that I lived there, I never found a nest on my property from these birds. They nested nearby and visited often.
In my new landscape, I've left corners unmowed. Under the pergola where I hang my orchids, I have let the pellitory, cudweed, sida, and peppergrass alone as potential host plants. My unmowed St. Augustine grass in a few corner locations actually serves as a host plant for 4 different butterfly species. Truth be told, however, I have not seen a single one of those butterflies in my landscape and nothing seems to pollinate them. At best, they are very poor pollinator plants. An entire yard of these unmowed weeds would be a serious failure in achieving my landscape goals.
In our zeal to remove everything non-native, we overlook the very real and tangible benefits of certain non-native plants. Despite what you might read from someone else, not all "exotics" fail to feed our wildlife. Like everything in life, we oversimplify things to meet our preconceived notions and then we proselytize to the masses that things are really this simple. Of course, life and ecology are not that simple. I think it's time right now to catch our breath and use our critical thinking powers. I believe, even in the "Dumbing down of America", that we still have these powers to use.
Right now, two of the non-natives I inherited when I moved in are playing critical roles despite their lack of nativity. The non-native morning glory is a pest of sorts because it climbs up everything nearby, but its foliage protects the gulf fritillary butterfly caterpillars that are munching the foliage of the corky-stemmed passionvines (Passiflora suberosa) that intertwine with it. They also serve as one of the primary nectar sources for my Southeastern blueberry bees. They are not "bad" and ripping them out to replace them with a different morning glory or other vine would not net better results in this situation. The Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow shrub is a plant I seriously considered digging out when I first moved in. I was not familiar with it. All I knew was that it wasn't native. I was talked out of removing it by a friend and over the last 2 springs, it has served as one of the most important nectar sources in my yard during early spring - native or not.
Plants that are invasive, regardless of their value, should not be encouraged when other non-invasive species could be used instead, but there are non-native plants that serve more functional roles in a living landscape than many of the native plants folks leave alone. The question of "What role will this plant play"? is the question we all need to ask as we analyze our landscapes and consider what we want the end result to be. Not every native plant plays a significant role in a living landscape and not every non-native is a horrid invasive that will "starve" our songbirds and pollinators. We need to become better critical thinkers if we have a chance to stem the tide of habitat and species loss that all of us are concerned about.