Thank you for this, Woody. We have an interesting set of variables in the UK - although we are an island, we have been enthusiastically importing plants for 500 years - I was at my local botanics the other day, lurking round the 'chronological' beds and was startled to see the history of plant arrivals laid out so clearly - but then, as a maritime nation with imperial ambition, not so surprising. We also suffered late glaciation in the last ice-age which severely limited native diversity, certainly from mainland europe, so we basically squeezed a fraction of geological time into a few centuries of avid collecting...and finally, the gulf stream has blessed us with a mild and temperate nation - although we are somewhere on the same latitude as Moscow or southern Scandinavia (z5), the oceanic currents have lifted us into a forgiving z8. We are also very small (but crowded, with only 1/40 as much landmass as the US. Consequently, while the debate regarding natives, invasives and ecological diversity has been elevated in the US, native plants have never really gained much traction here - not least because of the general paucity of garden-worthy contenders...so we are coming at this issue with entirely different assumptions and expectations...for which |I am glad since, although I lack formal scientific training, I do have eyes to see which are telling me that life is both tenacious and adaptable. Not having the vast and empty land masses in the UK, we have never really taken the issues of invasive plants to heart, apart from a small number of obvious contenders, most of them aquatic - Flora and I have often commented on the continental differences here and in the US - so we are coming at this question purely in terms of pollinators. An example which chimes with my personal experience: I garden in the one tiny part of the UK which still hosts the swallowtail butterfly - for one reason or another, this butterfly has gone down an evolutionary dead-end of depending on one difficult and elusive food plant...which also only grows in this area of undisturbed waterways...and as such, they are rarer than hen's teeth - I have seen only one (this June) in my entire life...and yet, the continental swallowtail has a much wider range of caterpillar food plants (although still in the apiaceae family) and, as climate changes are afoot, we are seeing odd sightings of this warmer-blooded butterfly cousin...and so butterfly conservationists are quickly planting up more umbels since if the 2 species have a chance to meet, to breed or even, in extremis, our butterfly may be forced to adapt - LIFE WILL FIND A WAY. And not only do I enthusiastically grow fennel (one of the continental's favourite foods) I am also growing milkweed because you never know. Conversely, in order to deal with one of our more troubling invasives, Japanese knotweed, plans have been afoot to bring in a particular variety of Japanese beetle which predates on this plant...and we are assured that as soon as the knotweed plants are completely eaten, the beetle will also die out. I am not reassured...although this is not THE japanese beetle of wanton wholesale plant destruction (we are told) I cannot help being sceptical that these 'biological controls' are simply going to lie down and vanish. Life is also tenacious.

Carolyn, I read a couple some years ago. I must check and see if my library has reprints. I am reading my books slowly at present, there seems to be so many other things to do, like dropping off to sleep! My D gave me a small CD player for Xmas with handy top buttons. Just right for listening to recorded favourite books. I have been accumulating some in case of being confined to bed or having the eye operation for cataracts. I am doing a Scarlett O'Hara on that!

Nancy, yes they do speak to that in the article . How wonderful it would be if our plant of choice could also help those who suffer insomnia and depression . I KNEW it was a wonderful plant , I just didn't know how wonderful .

I've always pronounced it the correct way...my husband is a native French speaker (from Quebec) and he's always correcting my bad pronunciation :)) We also have a French last name that is perpetually mispronounced here in America. You should see my husband try to order an omelette at a diner...it's hilarious! No one has a clue what he's asking for. I have to say it the "American way" so they know what he wants. Personally, I find French hard to understand! When I went to Norway, I understood that language much better. Go figure.