Many homeowners are discovering the benefits of planting native trees and plants. Native plants include all kinds of plants from mosses and ferns to wildflowers, shrubs, and trees. Native plants occur naturally in a particular region, ecosystem, or habitat without direct or indirect human intervention. Restoring native plant habitat is vital to preserving biodiversity. There are also many other reasons to embrace the use of Missouri’s wonderful native plants.
A Few Examples of Native Plant Benefits:
- Supports native animals: birds, bats, possums, bees and snails and other wildlife!
- Improves water quality.
- Prevents soil erosion.
- Provides clean fresh air.
- Secures our food resources: around one-third of our food comes from plants that rely on native pollinators such as insects!
- Native plants are adapted to local environmental conditions, they require far less water, saving time, money, and perhaps the most valuable natural resource, water.
Local native plants have adapted over a long period of time to the specific conditions here in Missouri. They are best adapted to grow in these local conditions and will be more likely to thrive than plants from a different region.
Native Trees for Missouri Landscapes:
- Red Cedar
- Short-leaf Pine
- Boxelder
- Red Maple
- Silver Maple
- Sugar Maple
- Ohio Buckeye
- Pawpaw
- River Birch
- American Hornbeam
- Hardy Pecan
- Shellbark Hickory
- American Chestnut
- Catalpa
- Sugarberry
- Hackberry
- Fringe Tree
- Yellowwood
- Flowering Dogwood
- Cockspur Thorn
- Washington Hawthorn
- Green Hawthorn
- Persimmon
- Honey Locust
- Kentucky Coffee Tree
- Black Walnut
- Sweet Gum
- Tulip Tree
- Osage Orange
- Cucumber Magnolia Tree
- Red Mulberry
- Black Gum
- Eastern Hop Hornbeam
- American Sycamore
- Eastern Cottonwood
- Wild Plum
- Black Cherry
- White Oak
- Swamp White Oak
- Shingle Oak
- Bur Oak
- Pin Oak
- Willow Oak
- Red Oak
- Post Oak
- Black Locust
- Sassafras
- Bald Cypress
- American Linden
- American Elm
For more information on native trees visit www.missouribotanicalgarden.org or www.grownative.org
All About Trees is caring for Springfield’s urban forest, one tree at a time.
