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Native Plants

The Bradford Pear tree in my yard is visible from my kitchen window and is a trusty bell-weather for the season. It is a male tree and is a sight to behold when in full bloom. This tree is problematic and should probably be taken down. My friend's sister L is an activist for growing native species and we recently got into a conversation about what is that bright red line in time after which things are no longer native and how much data do we have about species that existed before that time. I did not get a clear understanding based on her responses which are not unlike what I have heard from others like her. 

Poking around for better answers, I found a couple of things that looked interesting - one of which is chloroplast sequencing and a database of plants thus sequenced. Unfortunately, neither is geared to a lay person who has a question while shopping for plants at their local nursery to see if its native or not. Would be very helpful to have this database provide a plain English response to that question based on the name of the plant and the location. The pear tree might be a mistake in my yard but its stood there longer than this place has been my home - I am not inclined to let it go unless it poses a real problem. 

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