More and more Staten Islanders are growing native plants to beautify their yard and support pollinators. But for many people who are new to native plant gardening, the terms native, nonnative, invasive, and aggressive can sometimes be confusing. Here is a guide to better understanding these terms, starting with the easiest one and working up from there.

Invasive Plants

An invasive plant is a nonnative species that has been introduced to an area, either accidentally or intentionally by humans where it hasn’t occurred naturally and where it has spread to cause harm to the environment. The USDA defines invasive plant species as “plants that are not native to a particular ecosystem, and the introduction of them is likely to cause economic, social, environmental, and human health impacts.” Some examples of invasive species that you will find in wild areas of Staten Island are Norway Maple, Oriental Bittersweet, Porcelain Berry, English Ivy, and Vinca to name only a few. Some of these plants have been sold in nurseries and garden centers, and several are now regulated or prohibited in New York. It’s important to avoid planting them. 

Although the majority of invasive plants have originally come from other countries, there are somewhat rare cases where the plant came from another part of the United States. For example, the Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum) is native to the Midwest and parts of the south but has shown aggressive or potentially invasive tendencies in parts of the Northeast.

Non-Native Plants

A non-native plant is a species that has not historically grown in a certain region but has been introduced by human activity. It’s important to know that a non-native plant can be one that originated in another country, another state, or even another part of the same state. The National Audubon Society describes non-native plants as “species that have not existed historically in one area but have been introduced due to human activities.” Audubon goes on to note that non-native plants “don’t necessarily pose a threat to native plants” but “may not support ecosystem health as well as native plants do.” 

Not all non-native plants are invasive. Some, like Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), which is native to the Midwest and Southeast but not native to the New York City region, can actually be helpful by offering ecological benefits for local wildlife. 

Aggressive Plants

Aggressive plants spread rapidly through the environment, either in a natural area or your garden. The non-technical term is used to describe early successional plants that spread themselves quickly to cover the ground of a disturbed area. In most cases, an aggressive plant will out-compete other less aggressive plants and eventually cause those less aggressive plants to decline and usually cease to exist in the area.

Some fast-spreading native plants like Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) and Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) are considered aggressive. With these native plants, it’s best to grow them in areas where they can be contained by hardscape like driveways, patios, or sidewalks.

Native Plants

This is where the definition gets a little murky. There seems to be more than one definition of what makes a plant native to a region. One of the most common definitions is that a native plant is a species that has historically been growing in a certain area. This definition usually includes a certain time in history which has traditionally been before European settlement, although some people contest that even before the colonization of this country, Indigenous People had been moving native plants around for thousands of years. 

And then there are the glaciers to consider. During the last Ice Age over tens of thousands of years ago, glaciers scraped the land of all living things. Many plants that were native to different parts of the northern third of the country were not able to reestablish their previous native ranges. So, some plants that are native to the Mid-Atlantic or Southeast might have also been native to the northern states before the glaciers advanced. While glacial history shaped plant distributions, most modern definitions of native plants are based on more recent ecological history. 

The USDA website describes a native plant as “a plant that is a part of the balance of nature that has developed over hundreds or thousands of years in a particular region or ecosystem.” In their book, The Living Landscape, Rick Darke and Doug Tallamy describe a native plant as “one that has evolved in a specific ecosystem over thousands of years, developing essential, specialized relationships with local wildlife, insects and soil.”

Many beautiful plants are native to Staten Island, including Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea), Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis), Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa), and Golden Ragwort (Packera aurea). 

Here are some resources to help determine what plants are native to Staten Island: New York Flora Atlas, BONAP’s North American Plant Atlas, and Bplant.org.