Michigan State University

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About the project

Why native plants?

Which plants are best?

Create your own native planting

Plant fact sheets

Biological control & Natural enemies

Pollination and bees

Field days

Publications and teaching tools

Which plants are best?

Photo
The 26 most attractive Michigan native perennials for attracting
beneficial insects
(See the same chart with plant scientific names.)
The following table shows the most attractive native plants out of 43 that were tested, and when they bloomed (indicated by the white and yellow bars) in 2005. Yellow indicates when each plant was in full bloom. The number of stars after each plant indicates its relative attractiveness to insect natural enemies (predators and parasitoids) and bees (pollinators).

Click on each plant name to go to its fact sheet.
Relative attractiveness to beneficial insects on 48 plants
(See the same chart with plant scientific names.)
The two graphs below show the average number of natural enemies and bees collected at each plant species during full bloom in 2005. Plant species are shown in bloom order on each graph and broken down into early, mid, and late blooming plants. We saw that native perennial plants in their third year of growth were quite attractive to beneficial insects. Some non-native annual plants were also fairly attractive to natural enemies. The number of beneficial insects increased throughout the season. The maximum number of natural enemies at a plant species was 200, and the maximum number of bees was 19.

 Click on each plant name to go to its fact sheet.