Native Alternatives to Common Non-Native Plants in Texas

Most Texas yards are planted from the same short list: a ligustrum hedge, a row of nandina by the porch, a Bradford pear out front, St. Augustine everywhere else. Several of those plants are on the Texas A&M Forest Service’s lists of invasive plants in Central Texas and North Texas, where they spread from yards into creeks and woods.

The good news is that almost every one of them has a native stand-in that fills the same role in the garden: evergreen screen, spring-flowering tree, fall color, shade groundcover. Use the table to find your swap, then read the notes below for the details.

The swap table

Instead of	Try this Texas native	Why it works
Ligustrum / privet (Japanese, glossy or Chinese privet)*	Yaupon holly, wax myrtle, Texas sage	Evergreen screens. Yaupon takes sun to deep shade; wax myrtle grows fast and dense; Texas sage suits hot, dry sun
Nandina*	Agarita, coralberry	Agarita is evergreen with red berries; coralberry strings its arching branches with berries in fall and takes shade
Japanese honeysuckle*	Coral honeysuckle, crossvine	Well-behaved vines with red or orange trumpets that feed hummingbirds
Bradford / Callery pear*	Mexican plum, Texas redbud	Small trees that flower on bare branches in late winter and early spring
Chinese tallow, Chinese pistache*	Flameleaf sumac, cedar elm	Red-orange fall color on a small tree, or gold fall color on a large, tough shade tree
Vitex, mimosa*	Desert willow	Pink to purple summer flowers on a small tree that needs very little water
Non-native lantana (Lantana camara)	Texas lantana	The true native lantana, orange and yellow all summer, a butterfly favorite
Azaleas in shade	Turk’s cap, American beautyberry, cedar sage, scarlet sage	Shade plants that flower or fruit without acidic soil
Liriope or monkey grass edging	Cedar sedge	A fine, low sedge for dry shade that needs no water once established
Pampas grass	Gulf muhly, Lindheimer’s muhly	Big fall plumes: pink on gulf muhly, silver-blond on Lindheimer’s
St. Augustine or Bermuda lawn	Buffalograss (sun), frogfruit (sun to part shade), horseherb and cedar sedge (shade)	Low covers that take foot traffic and need a fraction of the water

* Listed as invasive in Central and/or North Texas by the Texas A&M Forest Service.

Evergreen hedges and screens

Ligustrum became the default Texas hedge because it is evergreen, fast and hard to kill. Those same traits are why birds spread its seed into woodlands. The Native Plant Society of Texas specifically suggests Texas sage as a replacement.

Pick the native by light. For sun to deep shade, yaupon holly is the most adaptable evergreen on this site: it takes sun or shade, wet or dry, and females cover themselves in red berries. For a fast privacy screen, wax myrtle grows dense and aromatic and handles part shade. For a hot, dry, sunny strip, Texas sage gives you a silver hedge that flowers after rain, as long as it is never overwatered. For a smaller, glossier screen in sun, evergreen sumac is worth a look too.

Red berries without nandina

People plant nandina for its winter berries and its small, tidy habit near the house. Agarita is the closest native match for a sunny spot: evergreen, blue-gray, with red berries in late spring and bee-covered yellow flowers in February. Keep it away from paths, since the leaves are spiny. In shade, coralberry is a low shrub whose arching branches fill with berries in fall. For bigger winter berry displays, possumhaw holly drops its leaves and shows off scarlet fruit all winter.

Flowering trees

The Bradford pear’s white spring bloom is what people miss when it goes. Mexican plum flowers even earlier, covering itself in fragrant white blossoms in late winter, and it stays a small, single-trunk tree. Texas redbud lines bare branches with magenta flowers in March and April.

For summer flowers in place of vitex or mimosa, desert willow is hard to beat. It blooms from May into September on almost no water, and hummingbirds work the trumpet-shaped flowers. It needs full sun.

Fall color trees

Chinese tallow and Chinese pistache were planted all over Texas for their fall color. Flameleaf sumac gives some of the best red-orange fall color in Central Texas on a small tree, with summer flowers for pollinators. For a big shade tree, cedar elm handles heavy clay, drought and heat, then turns gold in fall.

Shade plants instead of azaleas

Azaleas want acidic soil, which most Central and West Texas yards don’t have. Instead of fighting the soil, plant natives that flower in shade on the ground you already have. Turk’s cap carries red flowers for hummingbirds from late spring to frost. American beautyberry produces electric-purple berries in fall and likes even moisture. For red flowers in drier shade, try cedar sage on limestone or scarlet sage almost anywhere. The Texas salvias guide compares the two.

Replacing the lawn

Turf is the biggest water user in most Texas yards. In full sun, buffalograss is the native turf grass, a low, soft lawn you can mow or let grow shaggy. For a flowering lawn alternative in sun to part shade, frogfruit takes foot traffic and feeds butterflies. Under trees, where St. Augustine thins out, horseherb and cedar sedge fill the bare ground.

Before you start, the lawn replacement guide walks through removing turf step by step, and the lawn calculator estimates the water and mowing time you’d save.

Taking out the invasive plant

Removing a mature ligustrum, nandina or tallow is the hard part, and each species has its own quirks: some resprout from roots, others drop seed that keeps coming up. The Texas A&M Forest Service pages linked at the top describe each plant and where it causes the most trouble. Replace it in fall if you can. Texas A&M AgriLife has long promoted fall as the best planting season in Texas, since roots grow through the cool months before summer heat arrives.