44 plants
Agarita
Berberis trifoliolata
A spiny blue-grey evergreen that bees swarm in late winter and birds nest inside for protection.
American Beautyberry
Callicarpa americana
Grown for its show-stopping clusters of electric-purple berries in fall — a feast for mockingbirds and dozens of other birds — on a graceful arching shrub..
Autumn Sage
Salvia greggii
The workhorse of the water-wise Texas garden: a small evergreen shrub that blooms nearly year-round and shrugs off heat, drought, and deer..
Black-eyed Susan
Rudbeckia hirta
The classic golden prairie daisy — cheerful, tough, and endlessly reseeding.
Blackfoot Daisy
Melampodium leucanthum
A tidy mound smothered in honey-scented white daisies for most of the year.
Cardinal Flower
Lobelia cardinalis
Spikes of the most intense scarlet of any native flower, rising from moist shade in late summer.
Cedar Sage
Salvia roemeriana
A little scarlet sage made for the dry shade under cedar and oak — one of the few natives that lights up those difficult spots with true red bloom..
Coral Honeysuckle
Lonicera sempervirens
A well-behaved native vine — none of the invasive habit of Japanese honeysuckle — with clusters of coral trumpets that hummingbirds cannot resist..
Crossvine
Bignonia capreolata
A vigorous semi-evergreen climber that covers a fence or arbor in orange-red trumpets in early spring — timed for the first returning hummingbirds.
Damianita
Chrysactinia mexicana
A low evergreen cushion of fine, aromatic foliage smothered in golden daisies in spring and again in fall.
Desert Willow
Chilopsis linearis
A slender desert tree that produces orchid-like trumpet flowers all summer on almost no water.
Engelmann Daisy
Engelmannia peristenia
A deep-taprooted prairie daisy that blooms yellow for months and shrugs off drought better than almost anything — its flowers even fold in the midday heat to conserve water..
Fall Aster
Symphyotrichum oblongifolium
A mounding aster that vanishes into the background all summer, then bursts into a haze of blue-purple daisies in October — a lifeline of late nectar for pollinators..
Flame Acanthus
Anisacanthus quadrifidus var. wrightii
A wispy, tough shrub that throws tubular orange-red flowers through the worst of the summer heat — exactly when hummingbirds are fueling up for migration..
Flameleaf Sumac
Rhus lanceolata
A small native tree grown for the best red-orange fall color in central Texas, plus summer flower panicles for bees and red berry clusters that feed birds into winter..
Four-nerve Daisy
Tetraneuris scaposa
A tidy evergreen tuft that lofts cheerful yellow daisies on wiry stems in nearly every month of the year.
Frogfruit
Phyla nodiflora
A flat, spreading mat that takes light foot traffic and blooms with tiny pollinator flowers — the leading native lawn substitute for sun to part shade in Texas..
Gayfeather
Liatris mucronata
Spires of feathery purple that open top-down in fall, when Monarchs are moving through and desperate for nectar.
Gregg's Dalea
Dalea greggii
A silvery, trailing groundcover that spills over walls and banks and dots itself with small purple flowers.
Gregg's Mistflower
Conoclinium greggii
A butterfly magnet without equal — its fuzzy blue flowers are the single best plant for pulling Queen and Monarch butterflies into a Texas garden..
Horseherb
Calyptocarpus vialis
A soft, low groundcover that quietly replaces lawn in the shade where turf fails, threading tiny yellow flowers through its foliage for pollinators nearly year-round..
Indian Blanket
Gaillardia pulchella
The red-and-gold pinwheel daisy that blankets Texas roadsides all summer.
Maximilian Sunflower
Helianthus maximiliani
A towering prairie sunflower that lines its tall stems with gold in fall, feeding late pollinators and then a run of seed-eating birds.
Mealy Blue Sage
Salvia farinacea
Spikes of soft blue that hum with bees from spring to frost.
Mexican Hat
Ratibida columnifera
A whimsical prairie flower whose drooping petals form a sombrero beneath a tall central cone.
Mexican Plum
Prunus mexicana
A single-trunked native plum that clouds itself in fragrant white blossom in late winter — one of the earliest nectar sources of the year — then sets small plums the wildlife take..
Pink Evening Primrose
Oenothera speciosa
The pink cups that wash over Texas fields and roadsides in spring.
Prairie Verbena
Glandularia bipinnatifida
A low, spreading mat of purple flower clusters that bloom nearly nonstop and draw butterflies constantly.
Purple Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea
A prairie staple whose big rosy daisies feed butterflies in summer and finches in winter.
Purple Passionflower
Passiflora incarnata
An extravagant, fringed purple flower unlike anything else native, followed by egg-sized edible fruit.
Purple Prairie Clover
Dalea purpurea
A fine-textured prairie legume with thimbles of purple bloom ringed in orange pollen.
Rock Rose
Pavonia lasiopetala
A soft, ever-blooming little shrub-perennial covered in pink hibiscus-like flowers that open each morning.
Scarlet Sage
Salvia coccinea
An easy reseeding sage that blooms scarlet from spring to frost, even in part shade — one of the few hummingbird plants that flowers reliably out of full sun..
Standing Cypress
Ipomopsis rubra
A tall biennial spike of fiery red tubular flowers that hummingbirds chase up and down.
Texas Betony
Stachys coccinea
Soft mounds of felted leaves send up scarlet flower spikes for months, thriving in the part shade where few hummingbird plants will bloom..
Texas Bluebonnet
Lupinus texensis
The Texas state flower — a spring-blooming annual lupine that carpets roadsides in cobalt blue.
Texas Kidneywood
Eysenhardtia texana
An airy shrub that throws spikes of vanilla-scented white flowers after every rain, drawing clouds of bees and butterflies.
Texas Lantana
Lantana urticoides
The true native lantana, with orange-and-yellow clusters that never stop through summer heat.
Texas Redbud
Cercis canadensis var. texensis
A small understory tree that lines its bare branches with magenta pea-flowers before the leaves appear — the classic first sign of a Texas spring.
Texas Sage
Leucophyllum frutescens
A silver-leaved desert shrub that bursts into purple bloom after rain — earning its nickname 'barometer bush.' Thrives on neglect in the hottest, driest corners of a Texas yard..
Turk's Cap
Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii
The go-to native for shade that still wants color.
White Mistflower
Ageratina havanensis
A rounded shrub that erupts in fragrant, frothy white bloom in autumn — perfectly timed for migrating Monarchs, which can cover it in numbers..
Winecup
Callirhoe involucrata
A sprawling perennial that spills chalice-shaped magenta flowers across the ground each spring.
Zexmenia
Wedelia acapulcensis var. hispida
A tough, low mound of orange-gold daisies that blooms right through the summer with no help at all.
Choosing pollinator plants for Texas
These 44 species are all native to Texas and suited to this use. Because they belong to the local climate, they'll do the job with far less water and care than the non-native alternatives usually sold for it. Open any plant for full growing details, or use the finder to narrow further by sun, size, and bloom.