Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants

by Douglas W. Tallamy

most insect herbivores can only eat plants with which they share an evolutionary history.

our native insects will not be able to survive on alien plant species.

In the South and East, some of the worst offenders in this category include several honeysuckle species, the Melaleuca paperbark tree, autumn olive, privet, multiflora rose, kudzu, lantana, buckthorn, oriental bittersweet, purple loosestrife, Norway maple, burning bush, English

ivy, Japanese knotweed, Bradford pear, empress tree, Japanese barberry, wisteria, and mile-a-minute weed. These and many more invasive plants were introduced to this country by well-meaning horticulturists looking for exciting new species to sell in the garden trade (Mack & Erneberg 2002).