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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] The Effect of Cultivars on Native Species Gene Pools

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  • From: Jacque Greenleaf <jacque@book-woman.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] The Effect of Cultivars on Native Species Gene Pools
  • Date: Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:23:32 -0800


On Dec 30, 2009, at 3:00 PM, dwoodard@becon.org wrote:

If you don't do your permaculture thing successfully on your land, what is
its alternative fate? I doubt that you have enough land to support your
family with "unimproved" native species for food.

For ornamentals, I think there is a good argument for relying mostly on
native species of fairly local genetic origin.

If you have a significant area of forest that you manage sustainably and
restore to a diverse species mix of the area, and if you establish native
and more or less local herbaceous species on your land, and you farm
organically, you will be of great benefit to your local ecosystem. Don't
sweat the details too much.


I agree with this. Unless it's known for sure that a particular cultivar is displacing natives, I think there's little point in worrying about it. Your county and/or extension service will have a list of plants known to be aggressively invasive in your area. Don't plant those guys, and if you already have them, work to change the conditions that are conducive to them.

Honey bees are not native to the Americas. As my partner and I plant, I will be concerned to include species and cultivars that are important to mason bees and bumblebees. I know for a fact that the native bumblers in our area are drawn to pansies, so I intend to plant lots of them, as well as the native violets. Both bumblers and mason bees are active in colder temps than honey bees, so those early bloomers are really important. And we do have the room for an acre or two of permaculture zone 4/5, where, as I learn more, I will try (re)introducing natives that "ought" to be growing in that vegetation type.

I also intend to experiment with plants from warmer climate zones, both warmer and wetter as well as warmer and drier. Global climate change will cause massive plant movement in any case, so the more plant material that is already present, the better.

Lest you think that I am too cavalier about this, in a previous life I made a (very poor) living chasing endangered plants for various state and federal land ownership agencies. I gained a great respect for the natural resilience of plant populations. The idea that there is a fixed list of plants that "should" be growing in a particular area, and that you can debar plants not on that list is a bit simplistic, especially on already disturbed land. Let the genes flow! (they will anyway, regardless of whether you "let" them.) If your land's original condition was prairie or wetlands, and you have the room for a zone 4/5, contact your local native plant society, and start learning from them how to re-establish at least some of the natives. You have a lot of fun ahead of you!

Change happens, whether we will or no. Diversity is, as always, your friend.





There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved. - - Charles Darwin





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