05/13/2026
I get a LOT of native plant questions. I had a great one today by a volunteer and thought the notes I sent were worth sharing. There are a lot of little nuances to native plants and what makes them native. I'm going to use historic GEOGRAPHIC RANGE as the main note for this post. So add BONAP (Biota of North America Program) as a resource for learning: http://www.bonap.org/
Our volunteer asked about a yellow indigo, I of which thought cream indigo because that's the only "yellowish" indigo we have in the area. He said it was VERY yellow as you can see in the photo he sent over later in the day. I wasn't familiar with it, so my guess was a cultivar or a native that wasn't found in our region, like this one:
https://www.prairiemoon.com/baptisia-sphaerocarpa-large-yellow-wild-indigo. So a plant can be a native but it might not be a native to the region. Many land managers who care about preserving wild genetics keep their geographic distribution tight, say 60 miles or so and often know the plants origin. Gardeners, businesses, homeowners, or park districts might be less strict and include "natives" in their design that might not be native to the immediate proximity of an area but a broader range.
To find native ranges, BONAP is the resource I typically use. Here is the geographic distribution for the Baptisia family: https://bonap.net/Napa/TaxonMaps/Genus/County/Baptisia
From there you will see there are 3 main species of native Baptisia in our Chicagoland area:
Baptisia alba – wild white
Baptisia bracteate – cream indigo
Baptisia australis – wild blue
Plus some botanists will argue if B. australis really belongs in this area or if it was transferred over via railway early on as plant records were established. See even plant people can get confused.
So just something to consider when planting "natives." Words can be subjective on who is using them and how. Just like the word "w**ds." Your lawn w**d might be my prized native and my native plant might be your w**d.
Back to ranges, we had a contractor install an area in the COD Natural Areas just before I arrived. The contractor used Amsonia tabernaemontana or Eastern Bluestar which is a native in southern Illinois but not here in Chicagoland. Here is the range: https://bonap.net/Napa/TaxonMaps/Genus/County/Amsonia. So while it is close, if you're a plant purist, it's not native to our region. So keep or pull it? Which is the right decision? That's based on how one manages the land and their management goals. But we can also consider as climate changes, some of these plant boundaries may begin to move and some have. For example Butterw**d (Packera glabella) has been quickly marching it's way north despite a lack of legs.
Cultivars or nativars are not natives. They are genetically modified native plants. Just another fun word for the plant nursery industry to jump on a band wagon and continue to modify plants to be more showy, not produce fruit, be sterile, or grow at different heights, or color variations. Cultivars can mess up wild genetic diversity in natural areas. Cultivars also sometimes are not able to provide food for wildlife since the modified parts might not allow a pollinator to feed off of them. Remember native plants evolved in ecosystems for thousands of years along with wildlife. So while they can be pretty or beneficial in some ways, they can also have some non-beneficial qualities to consider.
Lastly the Army Corp of Engineers has a great FQI tool on plants that comes from Flora of the Chicago Region for those that are more than a plant notice. You can find a shortened PDF here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YBGJxgDy1WDA9l2l3-s57mv83wdqa5ie called HQI C-Value Quick Search. Things that get a 0 are either invasive, non-native, or natives that can grow anywhere. So that # may also tell you a bit about potential range. I personally like it for the C-Values, wetness indicator codes, and to look up a common or Latin name I forgot when my mind blanks or I’m in need of coffee for the day.
