Native plants have oodles of benefits, but there's a shortage of native seeds; getting more begins with planning

Switchgrass is native to the Northeast. (Peganum photo via The Conversation)

When spring arrives, it's "planting time for home gardeners, landscapers and public works agencies across the U.S. And there's rising demand for native plants – species that are genetically adapted to the specific regions," report Julia Kuzovkina and John Campanelli for The Conversation, a platform for journalism by academics. "Native plants have evolved with local climates and soil conditions. . . . . They generally require less maintenance ... after they become established. They are hardier than non-native species. . . . Many agencies rank native plants as a first choice for restoring areas that have been disturbed by natural disasters or human activities like mining and development. Repairing damaged landscapes is critical for slowing climate change and species loss."

Using more native plants sounds easy enough, but it's not. "There aren't enough native seeds. This issue is so serious that it was the subject of a recent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report. The study found an urgent need to build a native seed supply," Kuzovkina and Campanelli write. "As plant scientists who have worked on ecological restoration projects, we're familiar with this challenge." Kuzovkina and Campanelli are working to restore New England roadsides with native plants. Their problem-and-solution approach can be applied in most areas of the country.

They explain some of the challenges: "Restoration projects require vast quantities of native seeds – but commercial supplies fall far short . . . . Developing a batch of seeds for a specific species takes skill and several years of lead time to either collect native seeds in the wild or grow plants to produce them. Suppliers say one of their biggest obstacles is unpredictable demand from large-scale customers, such as government and tribal agencies, that don't plan far enough ahead for producers to have stocks ready."

Getting enough seeds takes cooperation and planning. "To tackle this problem, our team launched a project in 2022 with funding from the New England Transportation Consortium. Our goals are to increase native plantings and pollinator habitats with seeds from local ecotypes and to make our recommendations for roadside restoration with native grasses more feasible," The Conversation reports. "This led to the launch of the regional Northeast Seed Network, which will be hosted by the Massachusetts-based Native Plant Trust, a nonprofit that works to conserve New England's native plants. We expect this network will promote all aspects of native seed production in the region, from collecting seeds in the wild to cultivating plants for seed production, developing regional seed markets and carrying out related research."