[RWG] "Native plant" definitions ?

[Craig Dremann]

Dear Emily, Greg and All,

Thanks for your email.

When I posted the question about the "native plant" definition issue, I
did not realize how important it was, that the US Forest Service has
opened a public comment period in order to set a new definition of
"native plant", for the entire Forest Service.

All interested parties are supposed to post their comment(s) according
to the directions in the Federal Register Notice. The proposed
policy is posted:
http://www.fs.fed.us/rangelands/whoweare/documents/FSM2070_Final_2_062905.pdf

There's always an exception to a rule, regarding defining "native plant"
as those plants which are original members of an ecosystem, or as Gregg
quoted from the NPS definition of an "EXOTIC" as "those species that
occupy...park lands directly or indirectly as the result of deliberate
or accidental human activities."

Also, the NPS definition of "Native" as plants "...evolving in concert
with each other" could also include ALL naturalized exotics over time,
because once naturalized, they too are evolving along with the ecosystem
that they are now firmly attached to.

Unfortunately the NPS definition of EXOTIC ignores the thousands of
years of Native American moving plants around and humans naturalizing
them at different locations within North America. 

The Juglans californica in California, the original historic ecosystem
was the Santa Barbara area.  Many thousands of years ago, the California
Indians took seeds and planted them all over central and northern
California at their village sites along stream banks.  

Walnut Creek in Contra Costa County in the San Francisco Bay Area is an
example of such an ancient village site.  Anywhere you see California
walnuts growing along a creek, a California Indian village once thrived. 

Over time, and in isolation from the original genetic material in
Southern California, the northern California material evolved into a
separate botanically recognized subspecies, var. Hindsii. 

Also in California many sedges and perennial grasses used for basketry,
plus the semi-domesticated sunflowers were moved and planted around
village sites.  Driving through California, for example up and down I-5
in the Central Valley, a botanist can spot an ancient village site
easier than an archeologist and at 70 miles an hour, because that's
where the wild sunflowers are still growing today in mass.

Many years ago, I asked a California Valley Yokuts Indian about a
particular large stand of sunflowers along I-5, and was that an ancient
village site?  She gave me a shocked look and didn't say anything for a
while, but later she whispered that area was the secret location of the
tribe's ancient sweat lodge that they still use, and nobody was supposed
to know about it--but the sunflowers still pointed the way, after 200
years.

Plus there's the form of Indian Rice grass (Orysopsis hymenoides) that
was selected and intentionally spread by humans.  It differs from the
original wild form, in that when the seeds are ripe, the seeds do not
disperse, which is a human-selected trait within the grass family. 

Over the many thousands of years of intentionally planting and
naturalization, the non-shattering form has become the dominant form of
Indian Ricegrass across the West, and the original naturally-evolved
ripe-seed-shattering form, can barely be found anywhere (I did a survey
in 1997).

And then in Canada, the Great Lakes, and Europe, there's the paradox of
the Sweetgrass (Hierochloe odorata) occurring in both northern Europe
and North America, and it is a plant which rarely produces viable seed. 
The grasses evolved after Europe and North America split, so how did the
same vegetatively reproduced species get on two continents?  

Did someone bring it to Europe from North America or did someone bring
it to North America from Europe?  So where is it "native" to? 

Does it mean that we should give all plants naturalized into and around
North America by humans before 1492, a pass? 

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333