Part 1: What are Native Plants?

Part 1: What are Native Plants?

This video defines different types of plants and the negative and positive effects that they have on the ecosystem they exist in. It also provides a definition for the term ecosystem. The different types of plants are defined are: native, non-native, invasive, and naturalized.

It’s time to learn about native and invasive plants! What are native and invasive plants, and how do they affect our local ecosystem? In fact, what’s an ecosystem? Through this series of videos and written content, you’ll find the answer to all of those questions. For this section, the focus will be on definitions. 

To start, let’s define an ecosystem: an ecosystem is a community of plants and animals and their environment. An ecosystem can be as small as the community of bugs living under a log, or as large as an entire ocean. Everything within an ecosystem plays an important role in how that ecosystem functions. Ecosystems in different parts of the world have different plants and animals.

Next, we’ll define native plants: a native plant is a plant that has always lived on this particular piece of land, in this particular ecosystem. As this land evolved, this type of plant evolved with it. A native plant has a very important role in its ecosystem because it has been a part of it for so long, and it became very connected with all of the other parts. 

What about other kinds of plants? Well, there are non-native plants: a non-native plant is the opposite of a native plant. A non-native plant is a plant that moved from the ecosystem where it was native, to a different ecosystem in a different part of the world, where it is not native. 
There are two kinds of non-native plants: naturalized plants and invasive plants. Naturalized plants are plants that have learned to become a part of the ecosystem they moved to, and do not harm their new ecosystem. An invasive plant is a non-native plant that, instead of learning to become a part of its new ecosystem, becomes more powerful than the native plants and hurts the ecosystem it moved into. 

Watch the video for further explanation of these definitions!