Why Plant Pono?
Currently, no laws exist in Hawai’i regarding the sale of invasive species. Some of the plants and seeds that are commonly sold and grown can escape cultivation and invade natural areas where they outcompete and replace native plants. Introduced for horticultural purposes, miconia, raspberry species, Clidemia, autograph tree, strawberry guava, African tulip, and wedelia have all aggressively colonized natural areas. Besides being a menace for home gardeners, they can harm native birds and insects that depend on specific plants for food and shelter. Some invasive species are also damaging to our watersheds, reducing the amount of freshwater available or promoting runoff that degrades our reefs. Other plants may become weeds of agriculture, farms, or ranchlands, reducing yields or harming livestock, and making it difficult to produce food sustainably and locally.
What is Plant Pono?
Planting Pono means making wise planting decisions for you, your yard, and the āina. Use this website to select the right plants for Hawaiʻi, plants that won’t escape cultivation, and invade our natural areas. You can protect Hawaiʻi’s ecosystems by simply planting pono: Begin by sorting these non-invasive plants by color, size, salt tolerance, elevation, etc.
Why don’t native plants have an HPWRA score?
Native plants are pono! They could never be invasive in their home range. The first part of the invasive species definition, “1) nonnative (or alien) to the ecosystem under consideration,” automatically means native plants can’t be invasive. Visit BIISC.org for more on the invasive definition.
How It Works
Plant Pono conducts a background check on plants using the Hawaiʻi-Pacific Weed Risk Assessment. This vetting process asks 49 questions about plants biology and history. Some of the questions include:
- Is this plant invasive elsewhere?
- Does it form dense thickets?
- How do the seeds spread?
- Is it resistant to herbicides?
- How long do the seeds remain viable?
- How many seeds does the plant make?
- How long till the plant reaches reproductive maturity?
The questions are answered using published information, this keeps the assessment unbiased, and all the references are provided to keep the process transparent and repeatable. Each question is weighted and given a score according to the answer. The result, the sum of all the questions, is given a designation of low risk, evaluate (not enough information available to complete the assessment) of high risk.
10% to 15% of nonnative plants will become invasive, and 1% to 3% of those will become superweeds. These aggressive plants change the ecosystem by making monotypic stands. Which negatively affects the soil, runoff, groundwater recharge, native seed recruitment, native birds and insects, and fire patterns. The HPWRA predicts a plant’s ability to dominate the landscape and outcompete the diverse native species. Plant pono offers many other planting choices for you, your community, and your yard. Taking the plant pono pledge is a step toward protecting Hawaiʻi’s biodiversity.
