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The labeling rule as shown above, is not yet the law.  But it should be!

Any environmentally conscientious consumer will need this information to help them avoid selecting non native species.  However, selecting a native species as defined by country (Canada or USA), or even from the forest zone you are in, is only half the process.  More attention needs to be taken since plant life cycles also include epigenetic processes that effect events such as when they develop their leaves or flowers in spring, or the timing of dormancy in the fall.  This could be compared to circadian rhythm in animals.  Such regional variation is expressed as "Local Adaption", and is particularly evident for plants that extend over a large longitudinal distance, or altitude range.   Such a plant species will have sub groups of populations, each with their own local adaptions.

An extreme example of such a plant is the Florida Dogwood (Cornus florida), a Carolinian forest zone tree that lives across almost the entire extent of this zone.  The Carolinian Forest extends from northern Florida into southern Ontario.  A Florida Dogwood grown from seeds harvested in Atlanta, but then planted in Toronto, will most likely die during it's first harsh winter since it is not locally adapted.  To make matters worse, should it live, and then grow to cross breed with the local population, then the succeeding generations will have mixed up adaptions weakening future generations.  Clearly, the horticultural industry should NOT market native plants far beyond where the original seeds were harvested.   Unfortunately, not every Grower or Garden Center is this conscientious.  Gardeners need to know from where their plants originated.

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The current marketing of plants is much more messy, with shopping practices in other markets training consumers that what ever they see on the shelf - is "OK" to buy.   All products, from the shirt on your back, to shampoos, to processed foods, to electronics, or big ticket items like a vehicle, all must complete extensive testing, and then must include labels or warnings, before it can be sold to the public - except plants!  People are lulled into - see, reach for it, buy.  Few will think about future ramifications.   Most products are used and then discarded.   Garden centers cash in on the same mind set, providing pretty plants to exploit impulse buying.  But plants are different!  Plants are not tested, and the label only gives a name (other info being optional).

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The difference extends to "Plants are a living system".  They don't get used up and discarded.  Plants will reproduce generations into an unforeseeable future, and the decisions you make at the garden center check out counter can have ramifications well beyond your lifetime.  For the people who do take these facts into account, and choose to buy Native Plants (to help restore habitat at the same time that they beautify their gardens), then the typical Garden Center effectively block their ability to choose, by not providing basic information.  Shoppers either have to be extremely disciplined adhering to a premade shopping list, or basically have to Google each plant before they add it to their shopping cart.  We need better information on labels!

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In this time of Climate Emergency, in which habitat loss is one of the symptoms, and since planting native plants helps to restore the environment, then it is critically important to make it easy for people to choose plants that live in harmony with local biota.  Further, non native plants should be avoided (unless an accepted crop), and clearly - invasive plants should be made illegal to be sold (that's another paper).    Labels that include the forest zone where a plant lives, and the "Seed Zone" from where the seeds were collected, along with the plant names (scientific and common) should be considered as the minimum amount of info necessary.  Reputable growers already track this data through their own internal systems.  It's not a big ask that this information be extended to the public.