Native Plants in Alabama
The native plants that belong in Alabama gardens — for pollinators, by zone.
63 native species suit Alabama's regions and hardiness zones. A selection:
Purple Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea
The garden workhorse — months of nectar for bees and butterflies, then seed heads goldfinches strip all winter.
Black-Eyed Susan
Rudbeckia hirta
A cheerful, unkillable starter native that blooms its first year and seeds itself politely around.
Butterfly Weed
Asclepias tuberosa
A monarch host plant and the brightest orange in the native palette, thriving in lean, dry soil.
Common Milkweed
Asclepias syriaca
The classic monarch nursery, with honey-scented summer flowers that perfume an entire meadow.
Swamp Milkweed
Asclepias incarnata
A well-behaved, clump-forming milkweed for wet ground — a monarch host that also looks at home in a border.
Wild Bergamot
Monarda fistulosa
Ragged lavender crowns that hum with bees, hummingbirds, and clearwing moths; foliage smells of oregano.
Scarlet Beebalm
Monarda didyma
A hummingbird magnet with fireworks-red blooms for moist, rich soil at a woodland edge.
New England Aster
Symphyotrichum novae-angliae
Late-season fuel — clouds of purple daisies feeding migrating monarchs and the last bumblebees of fall.
Aromatic Aster
Symphyotrichum oblongifolium
A drought-proof, mounding aster that closes the pollinator season with sheets of blue.
Showy Goldenrod
Solidago speciosa
Upright golden candles that anchor the fall garden — and no, goldenrod doesn't cause hay fever.
Stiff Goldenrod
Solidago rigida
A prairie goldenrod with flat-topped flower heads that double as a butterfly landing pad.
Wild Columbine
Aquilegia canadensis
Nodding red-and-gold lanterns that greet the first spring hummingbirds at a woodland edge.
Cardinal Flower
Lobelia cardinalis
The most intense red in the native flora, built for the hummingbirds that pollinate it.
Great Blue Lobelia
Lobelia siphilitica
Spikes of true blue for late summer shade and damp ground, worked hard by bumblebees.
Foxglove Beardtongue
Penstemon digitalis
Airy white bells in early summer, a bridge bloom between spring ephemerals and the summer prairie.
Wild Lupine
Lupinus perennis
The sole host plant of the endangered Karner blue butterfly, thriving in poor sandy soil.
Dense Blazing Star
Liatris spicata
Vertical wands of magenta that open top-down and pull in every swallowtail in the neighborhood.
Prairie Blazing Star
Liatris pycnostachya
The tallest blazing star, a five-foot torch of purple over the high-summer prairie.
Spotted Joe-Pye Weed
Eutrochium maculatum
Statuesque domes of vanilla-scented mauve that swallowtails and monarchs cover in late summer.
Common Boneset
Eupatorium perfoliatum
Frothy white heads alive with small native bees and wasps, for ground that stays damp.
Cup Plant
Silphium perfoliatum
A prairie giant whose paired leaves hold rainwater for birds; goldfinches mob the seeds.
Golden Alexanders
Zizia aurea
Early flat gold heads that feed the first small bees and host the black swallowtail.
Short-Toothed Mountain Mint
Pycnanthemum muticum
Trial after trial names it the single most attractive plant to pollinators — and deer won't touch it.
Rattlesnake Master
Eryngium yuccifolium
Architectural yucca-like leaves and golf-ball flower heads give the prairie its modern edge.
The complete Native Plants & Pollinators of Alabama
The native plants that belong in your yard — what to plant for pollinators, by zone, with bloom timing.