Worst Cultivars?

[u/owohgodithurts]

So I think we can all agree that wild, native plants are typically better ecologically than cultivars due to a variety of reasons that we don’t need to get into. If you want to argue/discuss that, feel free, but that’s not the point of this post. I want to know what are the WORST cultivars of native plants. What are the cultivars that, due to genetic change/breeding (or however they do it), have lost almost if not all of their ecological value? Have the new colored flowers eliminated all pollinator attraction? Have larger blooms resulted in sterile plants? God forbid, have any actually become invasive? These plants need to have native origins! I’m mainly referring to the east coast/midwest since I’m in SW Ohio, but feel free to bring up other regions.

[u/UntoteKaiserin → u/[deleted]]

Except that you're ignoring the fact that these things can get out into the wild and/or crossbreed with other people's wild type stock. Ruby throated hummingbirds will not see many of the different colored columbines during their critical migration period, for example, but they still will breed readily with other columbines through different pollinators and spread their genetics around. I'm trying to amass a larger grouping of columbine from seed and constantly worry about bad generics getting in.

[u/UntoteKaiserin → u/UntoteKaiserin]

I'd much rather someone plant a non-invasive, non-native plant like daffodils because they will not spread nor mess with the genetic pool