I'm fed up with the demonization of invasive plants. I get that they are outcompeting our native plants, which I also love, btw. But when we make value judgments based on our own biases and limited human perception, we fail to see the complete picture, the larger perspective. Invasive species are here to stay whether we like it or not. And they have taken on new evolutionary paths ever since they first made it to our continent.
Yet I do get the reason people want to believe the narrative that native is good and exotic is bad. It taps into our deep longing for the past, the primeval unaltered pre-European forest. I know I feel this way... I'd love to have a time machine and go back and see all the giant chestnuts and countless species that were here before my ancestors permanently altered the landscape.
But this nostalgia can get in the way of us appreciating life as it exists now in our world today. Our continent is blessed to have more plant diversity now than before European contact, yet I never see this mentioned in articles or talks. Furthermore, it's considered heresy to include invasive species in any "approved" list of biodiversity.
But we must face reality! We need to internalize that the Earth is forever changed because of us and our ancestors, and we can never return to some pre-European utopia. I'd even claim that we wouldn't want to live in a world without exotics. Imagine our lives without so many of our fruit trees, vegetables, and crops... most of what we consume isn't native to our continent.
Even our invasive species have forced their way into our cultural psyche. Can we imagine the South without its giant sculptures of Kudzu vine or the perfume of Japanese honeysuckle in early summer? Imagine a country roadside without Queen Anne's lace or the ditch lilies (orange daylilies) of summer?
I predict that if you asked people what kinds of botanical/ agricultural symbols they associate with the South, they would list plants like peanuts, Camellias, Gardenias, peaches, Mimosa trees (Silk tree), Chinaberry, Wisteria, Kudzu, pecans, honeysuckle, Crepe Myrtles, Tea olives, Crinum lilies, the list goes on and on... and none of these are indigenous to our state. I believe each of these species contributes value and diversity and helps shape our sense of place and regional identity.
Even if we could get rid of all the invasive species, would we even want that to happen? Eradication would be akin to genocide at this point, because countless organisms, both native and non, depend on these organisms. New ecological relationships are in constant formation, and it is simply wrong to assert that natural selection hasn't changed these species into something new, something uniquely American. These "aliens" are slowly becoming new members of our American flora whether we like it or not.
Furthermore, we need to accept that biomes are shifting northward because of human-caused climate change. The very ecosystems we so treasure today aren't stable, they are in rapid transition. I often ask myself "What does it mean when our "native" plants are no longer adapted to our climate?" How do we define "native" going forward given the unstoppable reality of climate change? I know that "invasives" are exploiting gaps in our natural systems. One reason they outcompete natives is possibly because they can better adapt to changing conditions. It isn't a surprise that many of these exotics are native to warm-temperate areas of Southeast Asia, environments prone to climatic extremes of heat and cold. Carol Reese makes this and other arguments in her talks (I'd urge you to watch her presentations)
I'm writing this to provoke us to think deeply about how we view non-natives in our natural and cultivated areas. This "problem" isn't going away, and we are likely to face wave after wave of invasions going forward. My goal is to help reframe our perception of these inevitable migrants... to see them not as pests that deserve demonization, but as additions to our biodiversity and contributing value to our culture and natural ecosystems.
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