Native Plants. Part 4. Cultivars

Increasingly you see advocates for planting natives adding "do not buy cultivars." 

Cultivar is defined as "a plant variety that has been produced in cultivation by selective breeding." In the context of native plants, we are talking about wild native plants that have been grown and selected for desirable characteristics, perhaps a more intensely pink flower or resistance to mildew. 

dogwood cultivar with variegated leaves

Breeding changes plants. Of course. A cultivar is not genetically the same as its wild relatives. Offspring are not the same as their parents. The key for using or not using cultivars is whether the changes in the cultivar cause insects that eat leaves or gather pollen and nectar from the wild variety to avoid the cultivar.