Although more often it is exotic introductions that invade, native plants can also become invasive pests. Native grape vines like fox grape form suffocating thickets over shrubs and rapidly climb trees, threatening to out-compete their hosts for light. Though native to eastern and central North America, wild grape is an indisputable pest. Other native plants that are often invasive include blackberries, poison ivy, wild onions and cattails. Just as with exotic introductions, it's a small percentage of native species that cause problems.
Native plants have an important role to play in modern landscaping.
Arguments that are made in favor of native plants include lower maintenance, regional uniqueness, biological diversity, and wildlife habitat. One theory holds that native plants are easier to care for because they have evolved in a place over many years, developing resistance to climatic extremes, insect feeding, disease pathogens and other stresses of the local environment that a non-native might not be prepared for. Also, some exotic plants actually perform better and require less maintenance because of the qualities they were selected for, and because their insect predators and disease pathogens are frequently not imported with them. In an urban setting, for example, there is no planting site that approximates what would have been there prior to urbanization. The original landscape in both cities and suburbs often has been remade so completely that the microclimate, soil type, soil hydrology, and insect populations no longer are what they were when the native plants of the area evolved.