Trees

Pin oak leaf

When planting trees on your property, pick species indigenous to the Northeast. Native trees attract beneficial insects like the honeybees, bumblebees, and butterflies that pollinate crops and fruit trees, and that serve as food for birds. While many plants flourish in different environmental conditions, these beautiful and beneficial insects eat and pollinate only a few types of plants -- sometimes only a single species. In North America, about 14% of plants feed 90% of the insects. This 14% represents the “keystone species” that keep our food web healthy, especially four kinds of native trees: 

1. Oaks  (palustris, phelus, prinus and velutina)
2. Poplars (Liriodendron tulipifera)
3. Willows (Salix nigra)
4. Cherries (Prunus serotina)

Additional native trees include:

● Pennsylvania’s State Tree: Eastern/Canadian    Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)
● Alders (Alnus serrulata)
● American Fringe Tree (chionanthus virginicus) -    flowering
● American Holly (Ilex opaca)
● American Basswood (Tilia americana)
● American Beech (Fagus grandifolia)
● Birches: 
   ○ Sweet/Cherry/Black Birch: (Betula Lenta)
   ○ Red Birch (Betula nigra) and
   ○ Paperbark Birch (Betula papyrifera)
   ○ Grey/White/ Aspen leaved (Betula populifolia)
● Black Gum (Nyssa sylvatica)
● Black Oak (quercus velutina)
● Chestnut (Aesculus glabra)
● Dogwoods
   ○ Pagoda (Cornus alternifolia)
   ○ Flowering (Cornus florida)
● Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana)
● Eastern redbud (cercis canadensis) - flowering
● Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus)
● Elm (Ulmus americana)
● Hickory (Carya cordiformis, Carya ovata)
● Maples: Red (Acer rubrum) Sugar Maple (Acer        saccharum)
● Serviceberry or June berry (Amelanchier            canadensis) - flowering
● Walnut, Black/Eastern (Juglans nigra)

Planting native trees may save you money. Native species are lower maintenance and better adapted to local conditions. Some popular non-natives will not flourish in rising temperatures and generally wetter conditions associated with climate change. So do your pocketbook and our township ecosystems a favor and plant native trees.

Did you know that West Bradford Township has a Memorial tree program? For a donation, you can plant a native tree in one of our parks.

More information and extensive lists:

● Penn State Extension Service
● Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center
● Xerces Society
● PA Dept of Conservation and Natural Resources
● Facebook group, “PA Native Plant Gardening

Sources:

● Jerry Adler, "Wild Man," Smithsonian Magazine,      April 2020.
● Redbud Native Plant Nursery
● Edge of the Woods Native Plant Nursery
● Douglas Tallamy, Professor of Entomology at University of Delaware and resident of Chester County, Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens, Nature’s A New Approach to Conservation Thats Starts in Your Backyard, and The Living Landscape (with Rick Darke).
● Linsay Evans, “Native Plants and Animals in        Pennsylvania,” USA Today.