Native Plant Conservation Campaign News: Texas cites ecosystem services in its roadside native plant program

April 4, 2019

 

Since early in the last century, Texas has worked to encourage native grasses and wildflowers along the states roadsides. (This is evident to anyone who has had the pleasure of driving through a Texas Spring!)

 

Now, according to the Texas Department of Transportation, more than 5,000 species of wildflowers along with native grasses flourish along our state's roadsides and 800,000 acres of rights of way.

 

The Wildflower Program webpage notes that the “program not only helps our highways look good but also reduces the cost of maintenance and labor by encouraging the growth of native species that need less mowing and care.”

 

Native plants not save money and labor, they also require much less water and chemicals than most non-native plants. This fact was essential to the adoption by New Jersey in 2017 of a law requiring native plants along its roadsides.

 

The Texas website also explains that the native plants provide ecosystem services, “[t]he grasses and wildflowers also help to conserve water, control erosion and provide a habitat for wildlife in all the natural regions of Texas.” Texas sows about 30,000 pounds of wildflower seeds per year.

 

Bluebonnets are the State Flowe of Texas. Public Domain Photo