On America's 250th anniversary, gardeners are rediscovering what was once taken for granted: the country is not made up of red and blue states, but of green ones. An interactive guide from The Washington Post, created in collaboration with the Wildr Places app, suggests a trio of native plants for every state and the District of Columbia—a tree, a shrub, and a flowering groundcover—that best support local butterflies, bees, and birds.
The story begins not with modern anxieties, but with Thomas Jefferson, who insisted that only plants "native to our own soil" be grown at the White House. George Washington dreamed of rhododendrons at Mount Vernon, and Abigail Adams rejected showy imperial flowers in favor of the modest columbine. Today, with the United States having lost more than three billion breeding birds over the last half-century, these old ideas are taking on new resonance.
The selection of plants is based not on beauty in isolation, but on real utility for the ecosystem. A tree like the scarlet oak provides shelter and a food base for hundreds of caterpillar species. A shrub, such as the pasture rose, adds berries and cover. A groundcover—foxglove beardtongue—feeds bees and butterflies from spring through autumn. Together, the three layers create a mini-ecosystem where birds find caterpillars for their chicks, and insects find pollen and nectar.
Research by Doug Tallamy of the University of Delaware shows that if non-native plants make up more than 30 percent of the biomass in a yard, Carolina chickadees stop breeding successfully. Chicks require between six and nine thousand caterpillars over two weeks, and non-native species provide almost none. When half of American lawns—which amounts to about 40 million acres—are turned into such gardens, the area of restored habitat will approach the size of New England.
The Wildr Places app selected species based on several criteria: they must be native, disease-resistant, available in nurseries, and support the maximum diversity of pollinators. If the exact species is unavailable, any other from the same genus will do—bees that have evolved with one species of goldenrod will often visit another that is native to the state.
It is important not just to plant flowers, but to restore a community. Above is the tree canopy, in the middle is the understory, and below is the flowering layer. Each tier works for its own season and its own group of animals. Thus, a yard ceases to be a collection of decorative elements and becomes part of a living network that feeds and shelters wildlife year-round.
Even if the exact data for every yard is still being refined, it is already clear: the choice of plants in a yard directly affects whether birds and insects can survive in a human-dominated landscape.
