Native Plants

The Bronxville Pollinator Pathway Group hopes to inform and inspire residents to introduce native plants in their gardens and watch them come alive—with baby birds and amazing insects (including caterpillars!) and gorgeous moths and butterflies! You have a role to play in solving our biodiversity crisis!

Why native plants?  Only native plants provide local beneficial bugs with a place to lay their eggs and leaves for their larvae to eat.  (Note: All caterpillars are moths or butterflies in a larval state.) Non-native plants are toxic to them.  Although bees and butterflies might be able to gather nectar from non-native plants, they need native plants to reproduce. 

An occasional pollinator garden will not solve the problem of biodiversity loss.  Nor will a single “pollinator pathway” be enough.  Yet we can all play a role in transforming our yards into healthy landscapes that support the tiny creatures that perform many ecological functions and are essential to our own survival.

Wondering if you already have native plants in your garden? There's an app for that! Download the "Seek” app by iNaturalist. You can take photos of your plants, flowers, and trees and find out if they're “native” or “introduced." This is a great activity to do with kids and get everyone engaged.

Benefits of Native Plants:

• Beautiful plants that also provide beneficial ecological services.

• Require less care than non-native plants because they’ve evolved next to, and formed reciprocal relationships with, other local living creatures.

• Rarely need watering.

• Thrive in poor soil.

• Tend to repel truly unwanted insects.

• With trimming, they can become part of a formal landscape design.