R E S E A R C H PA R T N E R S H I P S

Do cultivars of native plants support food webs as well as

their parent species?
Dr. Douglas Tallamy
Homeowners, land managers, landscapers, landscape
architects, and landscape designers around the country are
beginning to use more native plant species in their gardens
than they have in the past with hopes of boosting local
biodiversity. A problem they encounter immediately is that
most native plant species in the trade are available only as
cultivars. If an important goal of native plant landscaping is to
improve the ecological integrity of the landscape, it is
necessary to learn whether cultivars of native species support
food webs as well as their parent species. This study uses
selected woody plants in replicated common gardens to
measure the impact of altering leaf color, agricultural
productivity, disease resistance, and plant habit on the
diversity and abundance of caterpillars. Data from this study
will be used to predict the ecological consequences, if any, of
altering leaf color and plant habit in native plants to increase
their aesthetic value.

Mt. Cuba Center Fellow, Emily Baisden

Determining the ecological role of flowering plants as

nutritional forage for pollinators: You are what you eat!
Dr. Deborah Delaney
This project will develop a digital pollen library of the MidAtlantic flowering plants and different cultivars of indigenous
species. The nutritional quality of pollen and nectar collected
from flowering plants will be analyzed for total amino acid
content, crude protein, fatty acids and sterols, total
carbohydrates and vitamins and minerals. This project seeks
to determine if there are differences in the nutritional value of
pollen and nectar from different cultivars of plants, and to see
if there are differences in the morphology of pollen among
cultivars. This project also will track the attractiveness of
foraging resources to determine which plants act as an

ecological asset to the landscape. Finally this project will

correlate nutritive value of foraging resources with pollinator
abundance and diversity measures. From the data collected
we hope to provide nursery managers, homeowners, growers
and landscape artists with recommendations on planting
assemblages that will add aesthetic value to their property
while providing an ecological service; nutrition for pollinators.

Mt. Cuba Center Fellow, Owen Cass

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