An idiosyncratic compilation of information on native or desireable introduced plants that should be growing on everyone's properties in the mid-Atlantic states.
    The Lovebunnies live on nine lovely acres in rural Carroll County, Maryland. Some of the land was once farmed, and the rest was logged several times in the ancient past. Now much of the land is returning to forest, and some of it is being maintained as meadow. But everywhere, there are trees, shrubs, flowers and grasses that are not native to Maryland: brought to America by Europeans or Americans from all over North America and the world. Many of these plants were considered beneficial, some got to Maryland by accident. Most of them are relatively benign. But many of them are very harmful. Lacking native diseases or predators, they grow out of control, choking out native species. These noxious parvenues reduce biodiversity at all levels of the eco-system, and this is bad. Here's a short list of links to pages discussing this:
        WRI Article: "Mechanisms for the Loss of Biodiversity"
        IUCN - The World Conservation Union - International Biodiversity Day 2001, May 22
        Complete Online Proceedings of the Conference of Biological Diversity
        Biodiversity: "Introduced Species: The Threat to Biodiversity"