Salt cedar is an example of a plant that is out of place or a nonnative plant It is also an invasive species or a nonnative species that grows out of control and harms the habitat it overtakes They are the opposite of native plants NATIVE PLANTS In North America many people consider native plants to be those that existed in North America before European settlers brought plants from their continent Today boats should be checked to make sure any invasive plants are not attached and accidentally transferred to another body of water 6
Ocean Food Chain killer whale The arrows in the food chain point to what an animal eats In an ocean food chain plankton may be at the bottom and killer whales may be at the top fish seal Native plants squid whale bird shrimp are important parts of food chains and food webs A food chain shows what eats what in an area It illustrates how animals depend on plants to eat grow and live Food webs are food chains that are connected to each other Native plants provide food for herbivores which are animals that eat plants Animals eat the plants leaves and seeds plankton 7
DID YOU KNOW Plants reproduce or make new plants in many ways Some make seeds or spores that grow into new plants after they land in soil Other plants reproduce vegetatively This means new plants sprout from the roots or stems of older plants NONNATIVE AND INVASIVE PLANTS When humans move a plant to a new region it becomes nonnative It does not belong there Nonnative plants grow in places other than where they exist naturally Nonnative plants are not usually eaten by local herbivores The animals that ate the nonnative plants in their native region often do not live in the new region Because many animals in the new habitat do not eat the nonnative plants leaves and seeds the plants can spread out of control 8
Nonnative plants that spread out of control are called invasive plants Most invasive plants grow and spread quickly They grow best in disturbed soil This is soil that humans have affected by digging building and other similar activities HOW INVASIVE PLANTS ARE HARMFUL Invasive plants compete with native plants in many ways Some invasive plants create a lot of shade Without enough sunlight certain types of native plants die A few invasive plants even make toxins in their leaves The toxins poison the soil so other plants cannot live there After a while some native plants completely die out Some invasive plants pull a lot of water into their roots making the soil too dry for native plants to survive 9
