Questions about Cultivars/hybrids

17 years ago

I really enjoy gardening for wildlife, and think using native plants is an important part of that. Aside from a few flats of annuals each year, my plan is to purchase only natives from now on. I live about 20 minutes from Garden in the Woods in Framingham, Mass., and hope to visit there soon.

I've been perusing the Nursery list on the NEWFS website. They sell a number of cultivars such as Heuchera 'Lime Rickey' which I assume is a cultivar of a native species of Heuchera. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this means that all the Heuchera 'Lime Rickeys' out there are genetically identical since they've been propogated from one original native plant by cuttings or division.

So I'm guessing that nurseries sell many thousands of plants of a really popular cultivar, which are all clones of each other (doesn't seem to do much for genetic diversity). Regardless of how many "copies" of a plant are out there, wouldn't the cultivar of a native plant still be considered native?

Also on the Nursery list is Agastache 'Blue Fortune', which I think is a hybrid of a North American species and a Korean species. Would this plant be considered 50% native and 50% non-native?

Just trying to get a better understanding what "native" means. Thanks.

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Comments (3)

ziggy___
17 years ago
This is a very hard question, because it depends on the personal philosophy of the person that you ask. Strictly speaking, native mean something that nature put in your exact location. Some people broaden this to include their entire state, or the whole country even. I just moved back to the Pittsburgh area from the Harrisburg area. These locations are in the same state, but on opposite sides of the Alleghenies. Some natives are the same and some are different. Buckeyes are only found naturally west of the mountains, for instance.
I try to go by a heirarchy as far as my personal definition of native.

1. Historically exists here in the wild and from a local source.

2. Historically exists here from a distant source. Closer being better.

3. Not historically proven to exist here, but possibly did. Arborvitae is a good example. It is proven to be native on all sides of PA, though none of the stands in the wild in PA can be proven to have existed prior to human intervention. I would also include species that are native close by (say 100 mi.) in the same growing conditions and not separated by a natural barrier.

4. Cultivars of the categories listed above.

5. Everything else.

Some hybrids occur naturally and would fit in the normal heirarchy. Others are totally artificial. I come at this from an environmental angle, but some come at this more as an artistic theme for their landscaping or gardening. You have to do some homework and decide what defines "native" for you.

I hope this helps some.

Ziggy
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Iris GW
17 years ago
One distinction you might want to make for yourself is when a cultivar is sport of a native and when it is a hybrid (and who are the parents).

For example, Itea virginica 'Little Henry' is a sport of a native plant. It has not been crossed with any other plant (native or not). A sport is a naturally occurring mutation (in this case resulting in a smaller size plant). Note that the species name (virginica) is still included as part of the name. Kalmia latifolia 'Elf' is another such naturally occurring dwarf.

Another example is Lobelia x 'Ruby Slippers'. This is a hybrid between two native plants: L. cardinalis x L. siphilitica. Notice the lack of species name in the offical name. The name in quotes is the cultivar name.

Another example is the dogwood hybrids that were created from C. kousa x florida crosses (non-native crossed with native). Cornus Stellar PinkÂ® (ÂRutganÂ) is one of those.

It gets even more complicated if they then use that hybrid as a parent to yet another hybrid!
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westhighlandblue
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Cross breeding of natives, which could possibly occur in the wild, is acceptable, for example the L. cardinalis x L. siphilitica. But I'd stay away from any plant that is a hybrid of a native and an exotic, which could not possibly happen in the wild. For instance, the cross, noted above of a kousa and native dogwood.
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Questions about Cultivars/hybrids

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ziggy___

Iris GW

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