You might be eager to plant native plants in your backyard garden, but a botanist would call those same plants autochthonous. From the Greek roots “auto,” meaning “self,” and “khthōn,” meaning “earth,” the adjective applies to anything indigenous. It can also describe things that originated in the place where they were found. For example, you might sample autochthonous cuisines while on a vacation. If you need a noun form, try “autochthon,” which is the specific thing (such as a person, plant, or animal) that is native to the area.