Virginia Native Plants Expert Shares Insights on Local Genotype

Wild Virginia Old Dominion Eco Buzz

Tune in to this episode of Wild Virginia Coffee Talk to learn more about native plants and why local genotype matters.

A plant is considered native if it has occurred naturally in a particular region, ecosystem, or habitat without human interference. Exotic plants that evolved in other parts of the world or were cultivated by humans into forms that don't exist in nature do not support wildlife as well as native plants do.

Genotype means family. That’s ‘family’ in the every-day sense, not the technical taxonomic definition. You share with your parents, aunts, grandparents, siblings, cousins, a constellation of similar genetic material that expresses itself physically as the family nose, or eyebrows, a predilection for cake, and more generally the way you see the world and choose to interact with it, unique to your particular band of people. 'Local genotype' means a group of families that live in the same place, and who likely intersect and interconnect through marriage, childcare, shared recipes, language, etc. when they're humans, and the botanical equivalents when they're plants.