Irish Lumpers, Bartered Brides, and Why Provenance Really Matters

Cat Swamp Farm plants are propagated from seed and cuttings collected from wild indigenous populations. So our plants are from here - the Upper Valley region. Sometimes it would be easier to purchase plants of the same species, but unknown provenance, from wholsale nurseries, but we don't do that. Why? Because, just as with people, plant genetics,and genetic expression, can vary widely even within a species.

Take Joe Pye weed, a species that ranges from Canada south to Florida, and west to Michigan, and one that sees significant commercial propagation. A number of cultvars have been developed - the white flowered "Bartered Bride" and "Ivory Towers," and the more compact "Little Joe" and "Baby Joe." If you're planting a formal garden, those cultivars are great. They provide the consistency of form, bloom time, and color that you are looking for. But for all those beneficial insects, birds, and soil organisms that can pollinate and provide pest control for our crops, there's nothing quite like the real thing, the plants whose genetics they have co-evolved with. The cultivars are generally inferior in ecosystem services.

To add to that, large scale propagation and long distance movement of plants introduces a few risks. Most recognized and addressed (although not always successfully) would be the spread of plant diseases and pests. Recognized to some extent is the problem of a plant's adaptability and suitability to a different climate. We wouldn't expect a Georgia Joe Pye weed to do well in New Hampshire. Even midwestern plants would find themselves in unfamiliar soil types. The issue that is least addressed, and one that is compounded by the popularity of cultivars, is the narrowing of the genetic base for these native species if we replace local populations with mass propagated nursery stock.

Think Irish potatoes in 1845. The crop failure that led to the Irish potato famine was caused by a water mold pathogen, Phytophthora infestans, which had spread from South America. Why no potato famine in Peru? Hundreds of varieties of potato were being cultivated there. Some succumbed to the blight, others were resistant. In Ireland, although as late as 1800 at least a dozen varieties were grown, by 1845, due to its superior yields, the Irish Lumper was the potato feeding Irish people, and only one other variety, the Cup, had any significant cultivation. Tragically, both cultivars proved susceptible to P. infestans.

We don't know what's coming down the pike in terms of climate stressors, disease or insect pests, and we don't know which plant genetics will stand up to those pressures the best. We do know that maintaining a broad genetic base is a key to resilient landscape. In short, we need healthy populations of native plants of local provenance because they offer the greatest ecosystem benefits here and now, and on a broader scale, they are a critical element of insurance against future challenges. That's why we have made perpetuating local native plants our niche.