If so, you rely on native plants. From the tropical rain forests to your backyard, plants provide us with food, medicines, jobs, and places of beauty and peace. They produce oxygen and filter the air we breathe. They provide all living species with food and shelter. As part of a healthy ecosystem, plants protect water quality by controlling soil erosion and moderating floods and droughts.
Native plants are an integral part of all healthy ecosystems.
Each species contributes to a balanced system developed over millions of years, and interacts to keep the ecosystem functioning. There is no way to know beforehand how the loss of even one species will affect an ecosystem, and subsequently the many other species, including humans, that rely upon that ecosystem. Corn, squash, beans, wild rice, grapes, walnuts, blueberries, sunflowers, maple syrup, and more. Think of how often these foods form a part of your diet. These dietary staples represent only a small portion of the edible plants growing in this country.