Do plants "colonize"? Why I'm trying to change the way I talk about plants.

I recently stopped using the word colonize (and related forms colonizer and colonization) to refer to plants in my scientific writing. My name is Jeremy Lundholm, and I am an Adjunct Professor in the Biology Department at Saint Mary's University. I have studied the role of plants in coastal ecosystems since 1996 and am currently involved in several ecological restoration projects.

What is ecological restoration?

Ecological restoration involves repairing and rehabilitating ecosystems that have suffered from human activities such as deforestation, pollution, and urban development. The primary goal is to restore the health, function, and biodiversity of these ecosystems, allowing them to recover naturally over time. This process is distinct from conservation, which focuses on preventing further degradation of ecosystems.

One of the key milestones in our practice is when native plants begin to “colonize” the site. I've been using this kind of language in my speaking and writing for decades.

A native plant is one that has evolved or adapted to a specific local environment over thousands of years, making it an integral part of local habitats and ecosystems. Native plants are crucial for supporting local wildlife and maintaining ecological balance. These native plants are the first to grow after a disturbances a disturbance such as a fire or flood.

Alternatives to Western, colonial language

The more I read and hear about the history of European colonization in North America, especially here in Mi'kma'ki, the more I realized how commonly that word comes up in plant ecology. The word colonization has become much more common in everyday Canadian English in the last 10 years, largely due, hopefully, to a greater recognition of indigenous history and ongoing legacy of European colonization. I think we need to reconsider whether colonization to describe what plants are doing. There's actually some serious scholarship on why the words we use to describe nature matter.

Language Matters

Maybe I’m taking myself too seriously. Who cares what we call it? We just need to get on with our important work in ecological restoration. Anyone reading my writing likely realizes that the author means “colonization” in a different sense when referring to plants compared to humans. We should be mindful of the language we use to describe the natural world, because colonial language reinforced the very worldviews that we are trying to overcome as ecologists and environmentalists. 

Working collaboratively with Indigenous project partners and students has exposed me to worldviews that are mostly consistent with a western scientific understanding of nature, but where ecological relationships are expressed in different ways. In these accounts, plants are not merely responding to their environment, but have agency and live in ecological networks of mutualism, sharing and reciprocity.

While treating plants as colonizers certainly grants them a kind of agency, using a term with loaded connotations like colonize attributes specific human attributes to plants, and these are increasingly understood to be negative attributes. Plants are just doing their thing, why should we attribute the worst of humanity to plants?  

The term “colonization” does not reflect the interdependance of living things, the unity of the biotic, abiotic, and the intangible that characterizes many Indigenous worldviews. The colonial worldview implied sees nature as adversarial and separate from humanity. We can do better when it comes to plants. 

Students and researchers learning to identify plants in tidal wetlands.

Instead of calling plants “colonizers,” try this

English already has several words we can use to describe the process of new plants reaching a site and starting to grow there. In looking for substitutes, it becomes clear how useful the word “colonize” is for plant ecology. We can use it with a direct object: “plants colonize a site.” Direct and concise language is valued in scientific communication.

My best alternative is establish because it accurately describes what the plants are doing: growing in an area they didn't already occur in. It’s not a precise substitute, as we don’t say that “plants establish a site,” so we have to use a wordier construction like “plants established on the site.”

The word spread is also useful: accurate and without much human baggage. However, this only describes what the plant is doing after it arrives at the site, not the act of establishing somewhere they did not recently occur.

So, establishing and spreading would describe a plant species that has arrived at a site and is now becoming more common there.  

Invasive species are challenging in this context as well. Many plant species were brought to Mi'kma'ki from other parts of the world by people. Most of these plants are not perceived to cause problems once they've been here for a while, but a few that are spreading rapidly and “taking over” natural areas are tagged as “invasive.” This is an accurate term in this context. While these plants may be “colonizers” in the human sense, we must remind ourselves that these species would not be here without us so let's be careful with our language. I don’t have a great answer for the “invasive” word yet — something to think about when it comes to the species of concern for “invasiveness” in the tidal wetland space. And don't ask me to say anything nice about ticks!  

I am eager to learn more about how the Mi’kmaw language discusses plants establishing in an area. If anyone knows a Mi’kmaw speaker who could comment on this, please let me know. I am very interested in the names of plants, animals, places, and coastal phenomena in Mi’kmaw.

Contact jeremylundholm9@gmail.com if you have comments, suggestions, or corrections. 

Learn more

Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future. Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

Paul, D. N. (2022). We Were Not the Savages, First Nations History: Collision Between European and Native American Civilizations. Fernwood publishing.

Subramaniam, B. (2024). Botany of empire: Plant worlds and the scientific legacies of colonialism. University of Washington Press.

Oberndorfer, E., Winters, N., Gear, C., Ljubicic, G., & Lundholm, J. (2017). Plants in a “sea of relationships”: Networks of plants and fishing in Makkovik, Nunatsiavut (Labrador, Canada). Journal of Ethnobiology, 37(3), 458-477.

Jeremy Lundholm | Contributor of unsolicited musings on plants, ecology and language. 

Adjunct Professor, Biology Department, Saint Mary's University 

Research Associate, TransCoastal Adaptations Centre for Nature-Based Solutions; CB Wetlands and Environmental Specialists