Jennifer Mason
Contributor
These two things are essential for growing any kind of plant that you want to place in the wild world. Leaves, as they decompose, build the soil and add back many necessary nutrients. Limestone, which provides calcium, is essential for plants for it regulates nutrient uptake, builds up the cell walls which give structural integrity to plants and acts as a pH buffer. If the soil pH is too low, or acidic, the most important chemicals a plant needs – nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium – will become unavailable to the them.
Certain species of plants will only grow and thrive in limestone or calcareous areas. We call them calciferous plants. Many of our showiest and most rare natives in North Florida are calciferous. Many people have tried to dig these plants and take them home only to find they wither away because of sandy, acidic soil. Natives here in North Florida grow in a variety of soil conditions and habitats. They have evolved over thousands of years to thrive and reproduce in a certain environment.
Insects and animals have also evolved with these plant species and rely on them for food and shelter. This is why it is essential to choose natives that grow in this area for your yard.
Lawns, crape myrtles and Chinese azaleas provide a temporary splash of color, but are of little benefit to the environment.
Florida is being overrun with invasive exotics and sterile lawns that are killing our beneficial insects, birds and animals. Awareness is growing, and find more and more people are becoming knowledgeable of the harm that herbicides and invasive exotics are doing to the local environment. You can have your splash of color and natives that
support
your local
area too.
A small, wild, un-mowed area in your
yard will
help
and bring
surprises
too,
like
butterflies and birds.
Native caterpillar food is essential if you want to see the butterflies. Paw paw, native passion flower, coontie and native milkweeds are all good food for the larval, or caterpillar, stage of the butterfly. There are hundreds of nectar sources for the butterflies themselves.
Everyone loves blueberries, both native and cultivated. Blueberry flowers require a unique strategy for pollination called buzz pollination. Our native bee, the Southeastern blueberry bee, (Habropoda laboriosa), does just this. These bees vibrate their flight muscles to shake loose the pollen on blueberry flowers. Not all bees are able to do this. Remember, honey bees are exotic livestock and don’t pollinate as much as you think.
There is so much to know on this topic. Ask a native plant expert, get some books or just Google natives for your area. There is quite a bit of info out there to guide you. Just look at what grows naturally around you. Avoid scraping a lot clean. Leave the plants. You will be greatly rewarded.