What makes a plant “native”?
A native plant is a species that occurs naturally in a particular region, ecosystem and/or habitat and was present in North America prior to European settlement.
Doug Tallamy and Rick Darke define a native plant in their book The Living Landscape as: “a plant or animal that has evolved in a given place over a period of time sufficient to develop complex and essential relationships with the physical environment and other organisms in a given ecological community.” Explore the sub-menus under this heading to learn more about native plants.
Wild Ones Front Range Chapter supports everyone who is committed to adding more native plants to their part of the Front Range, from a handful to a yard full. Each native plant that you add provides a landing place, food source, and/or a nesting site for local wildlife. If your goal is to create a sustainable biodiverse habitat, we suggest incorporating at least 70% native species into your garden.
You can place potted native plants on your balcony or simply replace non-thriving plants in your landscape with natives over time. Of course, the more native plants there are, the bigger the impact!
Here is additional information about Colorado native plants: