Current nursery offerings highlight the potential to expand native plant sales

Non‐native ornamental plants provide less support for ecosystems as compared to their native counterparts, serve as vectors for harmful pests, and can become invasive. To reduce ecological harm, researchers and practitioners have called for increased supply of native ornamental plants. However, it is unclear whether commercial plant nurseries are embracing calls to expand native plant offerings. Here, we analyzed inventories from 339 nurseries in the Northeast and Mid‐Atlantic US. We found 3322 species sold across 256 conventional and 83 native specialty nurseries. Conventional nurseries sold primarily non‐native species, including 283 plants recognized as invasive in the US. Native specialty nurseries offered 1176 species native to Eastern Forest ecoregions, 31% of which were unavailable at conventional nurseries. Conventional nurseries were more than twice as likely to sell native cultivars (74.6% of native taxa offerings) than native specialty nurseries (31.8%). Our synthesis supports the replacement of problematic non‐native species with native alternatives, improving ecosystem health in human‐dominated areas.

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Publication Details

Journal
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
Published
2026-01-29
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.70027
Primary Topic
Biological Control of Invasive Species
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Current nursery offerings highlight the potential to expand native plant sales

Matthew E. Fertakos, Bethany A. Bradley, Jenica M. Allen, Tristan Fehr et al.
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
Biological Control of Invasive Species
article

Current nursery offerings highlight the potential to expand native plant sales

Matthew E. Fertakos, Bethany A. Bradley, Jenica M. Allen, Tristan Fehr, Suvi Birch, Trista Dearstyne
article en

Abstract

Non‐native ornamental plants provide less support for ecosystems as compared to their native counterparts, serve as vectors for harmful pests, and can become invasive. To reduce ecological harm, researchers and practitioners have called for increased supply of native ornamental plants. However, it is unclear whether commercial plant nurseries are embracing calls to expand native plant offerings. Here, we analyzed inventories from 339 nurseries in the Northeast and Mid‐Atlantic US. We found 3322 species sold across 256 conventional and 83 native specialty nurseries. Conventional nurseries sold primarily non‐native species, including 283 plants recognized as invasive in the US. Native specialty nurseries offered 1176 species native to Eastern Forest ecoregions, 31% of which were unavailable at conventional nurseries. Conventional nurseries were more than twice as likely to sell native cultivars (74.6% of native taxa offerings) than native specialty nurseries (31.8%). Our synthesis supports the replacement of problematic non‐native species with native alternatives, improving ecosystem health in human‐dominated areas.

Frontiers in Ecology and the EnvironmentVol. 24(2)
University of Washington (US), University of Massachusetts Amherst (US), Mount Sinai Hospital (US)
National Science Foundation, U.S. Geological Survey
Life in Land
Openalex Percentile: Top 76%
Biological Control of Invasive Species
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Current nursery offerings highlight the potential to expand native plant sales — Matthew E. Fertakos, Bethany A. Bradley, et al. · Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS