Plants are the color and texture of the wildlands, but they are more than just scenery. They literally form the home and the dinner for all the rest of the inhabitants.Plants are the color and texture of the wildlands, but they are more than just scenery. They literally form the home and the dinner for all the rest of the inhabitants.
Thirty-four percent of the plant species, including some of the most common ones, are not native to southern California. Many are weeds from Eurasia, plants that have coevolved with human agriculture for perhaps ten thousand years. Some are from South America or Australia, and others come from other parts of North America. Ecologists often think of these non-native plants as invaders, and in fact some of them, especially the grasses, have changed the landscape. But both native and alien live together and interact, independent of human cultivation, and are more “natural” than cultivated natives.
Curtis Clark * Voorhis Ecological Reserve * Biological Sciences * Cal Poly Pomona