What is the difference between Natives, Cultivars, and Nativars?

Native plant:

Identified by genus and species:

example - Echinacea purpurea

 A plant that originally occurs within a region as the result of natural processes rather than human intervention. Also known as "straight species".

Native plants are indigenous to an area and have adapted to the area’s environmental conditions, climate, soil, temperature, and light Natives grow naturally in a particular geology amid the climate and wildlife, becoming part of the region’s ecosystem.
Many wildlife species rely on native plants for habitat and survival.
This dependence occurs over the course of hundreds or even thousands of years.

Prairie grasses and wildflowers store carbon in their roots and in the surrounding soil, and in many situations do this so much more effectively than trees and wooded landscapes.

Why Consider Native Plants?

Beneficial to the environment

• Gene diversity assures better survival from disease, growing conditions, climate change, or other factors.
• Insects and animals have co-evolved with these plants for thousands of years, and the nutritional value of foliage, pollen, nectar, fruits, and seeds of straight native species is known.
• Functioning reproductive structures and viable seeds without intervention from people
• Attract beneficial birds, pollinators, and other wildlife to your garden.
• Preserve natural diversity and resist invasive non-natives that may threaten wildlife and crops.
• Support the growth of the native insect population.
• Maintain their genetic diversity.
• Contribute to healthy soil.
• Reduce and filter water runoff, which protects streams.
• Supports nature’s web of life.
• Manages stormwater.
• Stores carbon

Advantages of native plants:

• Very low maintenance.
• Easy to grow, native plants evolved in the very soil conditions, soil pH, light, temperature, and moisture of the area’s particular climate.
• Stronger and tougher, which translates into lesser diseases, fewer pesticides, and low fertilizer needs.
• Need less fertilizers and pesticides, therefore reducing the chemical damage to the ecosystem.
• Need far less supplemental watering, naturally saving tons of resources, money, and time.

Nativar:

Identified by genus, species, and a cultivar name in quotes: for example - Echinacea purpurea 'Magnus'

A plant derived from native parents found in the wild, selected by humans for desirable characteristics. Then bred for this particular trait and brought into cultivation.

Nativars are often bred for traits such as disease resistance, altered growth habit, enhanced fruiting, leaf variegation, or altered leaf color. However, this process can result in a loss of genetic diversity.

Sometimes these plants produce sterile flowers without seeds. These plants can also produce viable seeds, although not hold true to themselves or the parent plant when the seed germinates.

Human-based selection of plant and animal species can have unintended negative consequences. Therefore, for native landscaping to benefit nature’s web of life, the Grow Native! program promotes native species for their known and documented ecological value.

Without protected original habitats where native plants reproduce in the wild, there would not be genetically diverse, native seed available for the native plant industry.
Grow Native! encourages native landscaping enthusiasts to support efforts to protect original native plant habitats, including original prairie remnants, glades, wetlands, riparian areas, woodlands, and forests.

Cultivar:

Identified by genus, species, and a cultivar name in quotes: for example - Echinacea purpurea 'PowWow'® Wild Berry'

Cultivars can be derived from non-native plants or native ones.

A plant selected for a certain trait, for example, flower color, foliage color, fruit color, shape, size, pest resistance, growth habit, disease resistance, longer bloom times, or stronger stems.

Most cultivars are created by cloning (asexual reproduction, such as with plant cuttings), in which clones of the parent plant are produced.

Example, within a population of a straight native plant species in the wild, there may be some individuals that are more compact in stature than others. A cutting might be made of one of those compact individuals, and that plant propagated asexually to preserve the “compact structure” gene.

• Some cultivars are strains (seed-grown, relatively true to type) or hybrids.
• Cultivars are most likely to have sterile flowers and produce no seeds.
• There are also Cultivars genetically manipulated in the lab. Example, Roundup-ready corn and soybeans.

“It’s not the presence of cultivars, but the absence of natives that’s a problem.”

Douglas Tallamy - American entomologist, ecologist and conservationist - Professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware

Glossary

Biodiversity: The variety of life forms found within an ecosystem. Biodiversity is increased by genetic change and evolutionary processes. Biodiversity includes species and genetic diversity.

Cultivar: A plant selected for a certain trait, i.e. flower color, foliage color, fruit color, shape, size, pest resistance, growth habit, disease resistance, longer bloom times, stronger stems, etc. Cultivars are cloned selections resulting in loss of genetic diversity.

Dioecious: Describes a plant species in which male and female flowers are on separate individuals (e.g., hollies, persimmons)

Ecosystem: A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment; native plants support other native species more effectively than non-native plants in ecosystems.

Ecosystem Diversity: The composite diversity comprising different habitats and biological communities, e.g., woodlands, rainforests, coral reefs, etc.

Exotic: A plant not native to the continent on which it is now found. “Alien” and “non-native” are synonyms.

Genetic diversity: Variety of genetic characteristics within a species and is a factor enabling natural selection to occur; allows populations to adapt to environmental changes

Genus: A scientifically designated group of related plants within a botanical family. It is the first word in a binomial scientific name. For example, Fagaceae is the botanical family to which oak and beech trees belong. Quercus is the genus name for oaks; Quercus alba is the scientific name for white oak. The genus name is always capitalized and italicized.

Hybrid: A plant created by crossbreeding two or more entirely different species (or rarely, different genera) to create a new plant. Hybrids occur in nature and via intentional cross breeding by people. Hybrids can be created with native and non-native species. A hybrid is sometimes indicated by an X in its name. For example, Magnolia acuminata x denudata ‘Elizabeth’ is a hybrid between a plant native to Missouri and a Chinese species. As another example, a hybrid derived from crossbreeding two native species like Tradescantia ohiensis x T. subaspera may be considered a nativar.

Infraspecific taxa: categories within species that indicate recurring variation: subspecies, varieties, and form.

Invasive plant: A plant that is not native to an ecosystem in which it grows, and whose intentional or accidental introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.

Monecious: Describes a plant that has both male and female flowers on the same plant (e.g, oaks, sunflowers, tomatoes)

Nativar: A cultivar derived from native parents and bred for a particular trait, typically resulting in a loss of genetic diversity. Nativars can have sterile flowers and produce no seeds.

Native plant: A plant that originally occurs within a region as the result of natural processes rather than human intervention. In the lower Midwest (Missouri and surrounding states), native plants have existed since prior to the time of wide-spread Euro-American settlement a little more than 200 years ago.

Non-native plant: A plant introduced with human help to a place where it was not previously found. Not all non-native plants are invasive.

Noxious weed: A plant that directly or indirectly causes damage to crop, livestock, poultry, irrigation, navigation, natural resources, public health or the environment. In many states, the term “noxious” has a specific legal definition.

Pollination: The transfer of pollen from the male part of the flower to the female part, resulting in the growth of a seed. Pollination may occur by wind, water or animals, including insects.

Natural selection: the process whereby certain genetic traits possess more fitness in a species population and are passed on at greater rates leading to slow changes in the genetic composition of populations of species.

Seedling within one species: A seedling with a particular trait(s) originally produced from seed (often wild-collected seed or plant), maintained by asexual propagation, for example, Hydrangea arborescens ‘Anablelle’). This category of nativars is most common.

Selection: a hybrid or cultivar

Species: a classification of plants within a genus of plants. A plant species that evolves without cultivation or hybridization. A species name is composed of two words: the genus name and the specific epithet, in Italics. For instance, the scientific name for white oak is Quercus alba.

Specific epithet: The second word of a two-part scientific name for a species. For example, the specific epithet of white oak is alba.

Species diversity: Number and relative abundance of species within a genus, a family, a particular landscape, or an ecosystem.

Straight species: A plant species that evolves without cultivation or hybridization.
Strain: Seed-grown plants selected for a specific trait(s) that are relatively true to type (e.g., of a consistent height, foliage, or flower color). For example, a shrubby St. John’s wort (Hypericum prolificum) found in the wild to have a more compact stature, is a strain, or natural variant, of this species overall that is, in most cases, less compact.

Weed: A plant (native or non-native) not valued in the place where it is growing.

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