Small scale additions of native plants fail to increase beneficial insect richness in urban gardens

Urban Farm DB summary

The ability of adding 70 plants of seven native wildflower species over two years to augment beneficial insect richness, including bees, butterflies, and predatory wasps, was assessed in New York City community gardens. Bayesian analyses failed to find a strong influence of the native plant additions on beneficial insect richness, even after correcting for prior floral abundance. Butterflies and megachilid bees were found to heavily utilize introduced ornamental and crop flowers in these gardens, even when native flowers were present.