For a shrub that works perfectly as a landscaping plant while also offering benefits for wildlife, consider the blueberry.

Walk along the edge of a meadow, the perimeter of a farm, or into a clearing in a deciduous forest on Martha’s Vineyard, and one plant you can almost count on finding is the black cherry tree. The black cherry, or Prunus serotina, is native to the Island and a vitally important source of food and shelter for a remarkable number of animals.

Over the next few months Vineyarders can be on the lookout for some familiar seasonal residents: the monarch butterflies. The annual odyssey of the monarch butterfly has long delighted scientists and backyard naturalists. In early spring these delicate, diminutive creatures leave their overwintering site in south-central Mexico and make their way north.

Most Vineyarders already know some basic information about invasive species and why they’re a problem. Basically, invasives are plants or animals, usually from a different part of the world, that are too aggressive. Separated from whatever factors keep them under control in their original range, the spread rapidly and crowd out more diverse and more desirable native wildlife.

If there is a more widely recognizable on the Vineyard than the American robin, we’ve yet to hear of it. The combination of a gray back and an orange breast and belly on a robin is obvious and known to all. Sheer numbers help boost our familiarity with robins: this species is a very common nesting bird on the Island, and contrary to the cliché of the first robin of spring, robins are present and often numerous throughout all but the most brutal winter weather.

Interested in a way to celebrate spring while helping conserve the Vineyard’s native plants? Consider volunteering on Saturday, April 6, from 10 a.m. to noon at The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC’s) Native Plant Nursery.