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Attract Wildlife with Native Tropical Landscaping

If you live in the Florida Keys or along the coast, south of a line from Vero Beach on the Atlantic to Sarasota on the Gulf, you can include palms and tropical hardwood hammock plant species in your landscaping plans. These native plants include many berry-producing shrubs and trees that are very attractive to wildlife.

For trees, good choices include gumbo-limbo, Geiger tree (Florida Keys), coffee colubrina, mastic, lancewood, Florida royal palm, silver palm, thatch tree, paradise tree, pigeon plum, sea grape, shortleaf fig, stoppers, strangler fig, wild lime, wild tamarind and willow bustic. For smaller shrubs and trees, choose blolly, cocoplum, wild coffee, firebush, Florida trema, marlberry, myrsine, necklace pod, Florida privet, seven-year apple, spicewood, tetrazygia and torchwood.

Consult a good native plant nursery for advice on selecting and planting vegetation for your growing conditions. To locate a native nursery near you, contact the Association of Florida Native Nurseries (AFNN), P.O. Box 434, Melrose, FL 32666-0434; www.afnn.org. Or, call toll free: 1-877-352-2366 (1-877-FLA-AFNN). The Florida Native Plant Society also provides information and publications. Contact them at P.O. Box 690278, Vero Beach, FL, 32969-0278; 561- 462-0000. Or, visit their Web site at www.fnps.org.

Want some help creating wildlife friendly landscaping?  Check out Landscaping for Florida's Wildlife, Re-creating Native Ecosystems in Your Yard, by Joe Schaefer and George Tanner; available from University Press of Florida, www.upf.com, or check out our online version of "Planting a Refuge for Wildlife" by Susan Cerulean, Celeste Botha and Donna Legare.