Throughout history, people have often valued plants for what they could provide—food, medicine, fiber, fuel, or shelter. When we assign a use to a native plant, we often elevate it from “weed” to “useful plant.” But should a native plant need a use to deserve a place in the landscape?
Native Plant Uses to Native Americans
Indigenous peoples whose traditional homelands include present-day Oklahoma, before large-scale Euro-American settlement, routinely sought out plants that had value to them. The Osage sought out Prairie Turnip (Pediomelum esculentum) and Groundnut for food, and Smooth Sumac for medicine. The Kiowa collected Pecan and American Plum for food and for ceremonial purposes the Virginia Plantain —probably not the banana like plantain people think of today, see this link for more info.
The Native American Ethnobotany Database has 4,029 species of plants, over 44,000 uses from dyes, drugs, food and fibers. The database includes documented plant uses from 291 Indigenous groups. The United States has about 17,000 native species of vascular plants. The University of Kansas Prairie Ethnobotany Database lists 1,600 unique species with over 22,000 recorded uses. These databases do not document every plant or every traditional use, nor do they capture every ecological function a plant serves.
Modern Uses for Native Plants
Today we still use native plants for medicine, dyes, foods and more recently conservation purposes. Native plants are used for erosion control, improving water quality, and providing food and habitat for pollinators and wildlife. Conservation broadens the definition of “use.” If the goal is to restore a natural landscape before Western Settlement all the previous species have a place and a use.
In addition to native plants we use a huge number of non-native or introduced species. Nearly all commercially available garden plants are introduced. The tomato is most likely from Moesoamerica. Similarly our spicy peppers were domesticated in central-east Mexico. Broccoli may be from the Mediterranean region. The non food category of introduced plants includes industrial hemp from central/southwest Asia. Flax, for oil and fiber is from the Fertile Crescent / Mediterranean. The Castor bean—of caster oil fame—is native to Ethiopia. We’ve introduced around 5,000 non native plants to the US, some with a purpose and some by accident.
Thinking about native plants in this way changed my perspective. At first, I wanted every plant to play a role in my life by providing food, medicine or some other direct benefit. Over time, I’ve realized that all native plants have a purpose simply by being part of the ecosystem. They feed insects I rarely see. They stabilize soils I rarely think about. They support wildlife long after they are no longer green and growing in my garden. Maybe the question isn’t “How is this plant useful to me?” Maybe a better question is “What role does this plant already play in the ecosystem?”
Sometimes a plant’s greatest value isn’t what it provides to us—it’s what it provides to everything else.