Plant vendors generate a commercial species pool, the subset of species in a regional flora that is purchasable. The availability of plant species from commercial vendors can influence the composition and outcomes of conservation, landscaping, and restoration plantings. Although previous research suggests that most plant species are unavailable, there is little information that identifies the plant characteristics associated with commercial availability. We studied the composition of the commercial species pool by examining the ecology, phylogeny, and phenology of a regional flora in the Midwestern United States. We used a database of native plant species sold by 557 vendors throughout the Midwest (USA) to characterize species' availability. We compiled ecological characteristics of all plant species, including range size, growth form, moisture requirements, and conservatism—meaning fidelity to high‐quality natural areas. We characterized phenological (bloom time) data for a subset of the regional flora. Finally, we constructed a regional phylogeny to assess the phylogenetic signal of plant availability. We expected that commercially unavailable species would be niche specialists or short‐lived (often nonconservative “weedy”) species, and that they would bloom earlier in the season and for a shorter time. We found that commercially available species were more long‐lived, had larger range sizes, had intermediate fidelities to wetlands and high‐quality or disturbed natural areas, and were associated with certain plant types, especially shrubs and trees. In contrast, ferns and graminoids were underrepresented in the commercial trade. There was a strong phylogenetic signal associated with commercial availability; some plant families had nearly all or none of their species commercially available. Example families with low representation included Orchidaceae, Potamogetonaceae, Cyperaceae, and fern families. Longer bloomed species were more commercially available, but we did not find differences in availability between early‐ and late‐blooming species. Despite the diversity of the commercial pool in the Midwest, it is an unrepresentative, nonrandom subset of the regional species pool. This finding may promote the mismatch in species diversity and composition between remnant natural habitats and restorations because many specialized species are commercially unavailable to conservation and restoration practitioners. We encourage strategies to promote the availability of underrepresented plant diversity in the commercial species pool.

中文翻译：

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生态特征和系统发育对本地植物物种商业可用性的影响


植物供应商会生成一个商业物种池，即区域植物群中可购买的物种子集。商业供应商提供的植物物种会影响保护、景观美化和恢复种植的组成和结果。尽管先前的研究表明大多数植物物种不可用，但几乎没有信息可以确定与商业可用性相关的植物特征。我们通过检查美国中西部区域植物群的生态学、系统发育和物候学来研究商业物种库的组成。我们使用了整个中西部（美国）的 557 家供应商销售的本地植物物种数据库来描述物种的可用性。我们汇编了所有植物物种的生态特征，包括分布范围大小、生长形式、水分需求和保守性——这意味着对高质量自然区域的忠实度。我们表征了区域植物群的一个子集的物候（开花时间）数据。最后，我们构建了一个区域系统发育来评估植物可用性的系统发育信号。我们预计商业上无法获得的物种将是生态位专家或短命（通常是非保守的“杂草”）物种，并且它们会在季节的早期和较短的时间内开花。我们发现，市售物种的寿命更长，分布范围更大，对湿地和高质量或受干扰的自然区域具有中等保真度，并且与某些植物类型有关，尤其是灌木和树木。相比之下，蕨类植物和禾本科植物在商业贸易中的代表性不足。 存在与商业可用性相关的强烈系统发育信号;一些植物科几乎拥有所有或没有商业物种。代表性较低的示例科包括 Orchidaceae、Potamogetonaceae、Cyperaceae 和 Fern 科。开花时间较长的物种在商业上更容易获得，但我们没有发现早开花和晚开花物种之间的可用性存在差异。尽管中西部的商业池多种多样，但它是区域物种池的一个不具代表性的非随机子集。这一发现可能会促进残余自然栖息地和恢复之间物种多样性和组成的不匹配，因为许多专业物种在商业上对保护和恢复从业者来说是无法获得的。我们鼓励制定策略，促进商业物种库中代表性不足的植物多样性的可用性。