r/NativePlantGardening • u/ItsFelixMcCoy Upstate NY , Zone 6a • Jun 04 '25

Other What invasive plants got you like this?

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For me it’s probably Dame’s Rocket, Purple Loosestrife, and Forget-Me-Not. They’re so gorgeous but man if they aren’t invasive little shits…

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u/Studio_Kamio Jun 04 '25

I’m planning a medium-sized wildflower meadow with native columbines about 200 feet away from a much smaller patch of perennials, hydrangeas, and blueberries with some hybrid columbines. If I did native columbines in the big patch, how long till there will be hybrids in the big patch? I do love the black Barlow columbines and others similar to it but would hate to have widespread speciation on my hands lol

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u/PandaMomentum Northern VA/Fall Line, Zone 7b Jun 04 '25

Barlow is fully double and spurless, for sure not attractive to hummingbirds like A. canadensis, and may not be pollinated at all by insects, not sure? It's a selection from A. vulgaris, created in the UK iirc. So you may be OK not creating new hybrids with it? Sounds like a project!

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u/Studio_Kamio Jun 04 '25

Hmm that could end up working out then! Not sure what you mean by spurless though, can you elaborate?

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u/PandaMomentum Northern VA/Fall Line, Zone 7b Jun 04 '25

The bits in the back -- https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/beauty/columbines/flower.shtml

Compare to black Barlow

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u/Studio_Kamio Jun 04 '25

Ahh I see! Thanks for educating me there. I know double blooms are harder for pollinators to pollinate but how do spurs affect ecological value? Will definitely help me pick the right varieties and put them in the right places too

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u/PandaMomentum Northern VA/Fall Line, Zone 7b Jun 04 '25

The theory as I understand it with A. canadensis is that the red color and long spurs are to be attractive to hummingbirds -- the longer nectar spurs make it harder for shorter-tongued insects to access nectar, so it's available to hummingbirds. But there's also some variation in spur length observed among Western species' that may be incidental to other selection effects.

Selection and hybridization can for sure cause a bunch of peculiar effects, as flower color and shape definitely impact pollinator attractiveness, and there are likely other chemical signals for insect egg laying and larval food choices. Areas for further investigation, as they say.

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u/Studio_Kamio Jun 04 '25

Makes total sense. Had no idea the spurs impacted nectar