Native forbs provide important food and shelter resources for wildlife and are the component that adds species diversity to many native plant communities. This symposium provided an overview of some important aspects to consider when using native forbs in restoration and highlights recent work relevant to different phases of restoration. Christina Blandino discussed regeneration from seed and seed germination syndromes of plants in ancient woodlands of temperate Europe. Tara de Queiroz looked at seed increase of annual forbs for use in arid land restoration. Sarah Barga and Alison Agneray both examined the selection of species and populations for use in restoration. Finally, Paul Gibson-Roy and Anita Kirmer represented the use of forbs in restoration of ecosystem function and species diversity in their focal ecosystems, Australian grassy woodlands and agro-environmental schemes in Germany.
Our presentations and discussion resulted in the sharing of many noteworthy details related to the use of native forbs in restoration. Cristina Blandino (Native Seed Science, Technology and Conservation Project) suggested that a good approach for incorporating forbs in a closed-canopy woodland might be to plant seedlings, rather than to put seeds directly into the ground, to improve restoration success. Tara de Queiroz (University of Nevada, Reno – USA) shared that a major barrier for using native plants in restoration in the USA is the lack of incentives for growers that would ensure that investments in the production of native seed will be worth the cost. Conversely, Anita Kirmer (Anhalt University of Applied Sciences – Germany) shared that the government in many regions of Germany insisted on the use of native plants in restoration and that she was able to use seed mixes of natives only in some of her agro-environmental experiments to produce pollinator strips, with seed mixes containing up to 30 different native species. Alison Agneray (University of Nevada, Reno – USA) shared that her group is successfully working to grow-out forbs for restoration and that she had recently collected seed of a particularly promising population to send to a grower for seed increase; she elaborated that her group focuses on trait measures across populations and is testing how cultivation practices during seed increase may affect genetic diversity and trait values over time. Sarah Barga (US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station – USA) mentioned that their group has received much encouragement from federal agencies, academic collaborators, and non-profit organizations who are interested in supporting the use of forbs in restoration in arid and semi-arid systems of the US and that their academic partners are performing work related to competition with invasive species and plant-soil interactions that will complement the seed transfer guidance that is produced from the common garden experiment. Paul Gibson-Roy (Kalbar Operations - Australia) discussed the technique of removing topsoil, as a way to remove weed seed banks and reduce nutrient loads due to agricultural use, as a way to encourage the growth of subdominant native forbs in grassy woodland ecosystems in Australia; he acknowledged that this techniques works with great success to restore complex native plant communities, partly due to the fact that many of the remnants that they are restoring are rather small, but that they are working on how to scale up the process for larger areas. Overall, we hope that this symposium will open the door for more conversations with people who are interested in promoting the use of native forbs in restoration and help make connections between researchers working in different areas and ecosystems.