Native Plants for Massachusetts

The eastern third of the state, and Cape Cod and the islands especially, sits on glacial sand and gravel. Soils are droughty and acidic, and the natural vegetation is pitch pine and scrub oak, heathland, and sandplain grassland. Those sandplain communities are globally rare, surviving in quantity on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket and in scattered mainland sites, and they support a distinctive set of plants adapted to fire, wind, and lean ground.

Move west and the ground changes. The Connecticut River valley through the center of the state has richer alluvial soils. Farther west still, the Berkshires include marble and limestone valleys whose sweeter soils carry a calcium-loving flora unlike anything on the coastal plain, along with the state's coldest gardening conditions.

A plant list for Nantucket and a plant list for Williamstown overlap much less than the map suggests.

Coastal gardens have their own rules

Near the water, salt spray and wind are the limiting factors rather than cold. Winter lows on the outer Cape and islands are the mildest in New England, which tempts gardeners toward tender plants, but exposure undoes what warmth allows.

The native coastal shrubs, bayberry, beach plum, inkberry, and the seaside goldenrods, are built for it. Inland from the immediate shore, the pitch pine and scrub oak flora handles the sand and the drought without irrigation once established.

Working with sandy, acidic ground

The common eastern Massachusetts mistake is treating sand as a soil to be fixed. Adding organic matter helps a vegetable bed and does very little for a native planting, because the species that belong there evolved on exactly this ground and resent the richness.

Choose lean-site species, plant them at the right density so they close over the soil, mulch with leaf litter rather than bark where you can, and water only through the first season.

Fall planting works well across the state, and the coastal counties have a long enough autumn to make it clearly the better option.

Confirming what is native to your county

Native Plant Trust, headquartered in Framingham, runs the region's plant conservation program and maintains the most detailed flora resources available for New England, including conservation status for every species. The Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program documents natural communities statewide.

Sources: Native Plant Trust (New England flora, conservation status, and propagation); Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program, Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (natural communities); USDA PLANTS Database (native status by state).