Georgia Native Plants and Pollinator Plants

Georgia native plants for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds

Sorted by plant type, with the common names the lists use.

Trees (2)

Ogeechee Lime, Sugarberry.

Shrubs (13)

Adam’s Needle, Black Titi, Gallberry or Inkberry, Hoptree, Horse-Sugar, Painted Buckeye, Rabbiteye Blueberry Cultivars, Red Basil, Red Buckeye, Red Titi, Southern Wax Myrtle, Spice-Bush, Summersweet Clethra.

Vines (4)

Carolina Yellow Jessamine, Crossvine, Trumpet Honeysuckle, Trumpetcreeper.

Perennials and wildflowers (78)

Alpine Violet, American Boneset, Appalachian Bergamot, Azure-blue Sage, Beardtongue, Beebalm, Bird’s Foot Violet, Black Cohosh, Blue Mistflower, Blue Wild Indigo, Blue-stemmed Goldenrod, Butterfly Weed, Cardinal Flower, Carolina Flat-topped Goldenrod, Carolina Phlox, Clasping Milkweed, Common Milkweed, Copper Iris, Coral Bean, Cup Plant, Downy Blue Lobelia, Dwarf Cinquefoil, Dwarf Crested Iris, Eastern Columbine, Eastern Sensitive Briar, Eastern Silvery Aster, Fire Pink, Fringed Blue Star, Garden Phlox, Golden Alexander, Gopherweed, Grass-leaved Goldenaster, Gray Goldenrod, Great Blue Lobelia, Hairy Angelica, Indian-pink, Ironweed, Joe-Pye Weed, Kidneyleaf Rosinweed, Late Boneset, Late Purple Aster, Licorice Goldenrod, Lobed Coreopsis, Longbract Wild Indigo, Lyre-leaf Sage, Maryland Goldenaster, Narrowleaf Ironweed, Narrowleaf Sunflower, New England Aster, Obedient Plant, Pink Turtlehead, Pink-scale Blazing Star, Plantain Pussytoes, Scarlet Rose Mallow, Shaggy Blazing Star, Shoofly Wild Indigo, Showy Goldenrod, Small’s Beardtongue, Smooth Beardtongue, Smooth Phlox, Soapwort Gentian, Solomon’s-seal, Spoonshape Barbara’s Buttons, Spotted Horse-mint, Spurred Butterfly Pea, Star Tickseed, Starry Rosinweed, Swamp Milkweed, Tall Blazing Star, Toothwort, Vanillaleaf, White Milkweed, White Turtlehead, White Wild Indigo, White Wood Aster, Wild Sweet William, Woodland Coreopsis, Wrinkle-leaf Goldenrod.

Annual wildflowers (8)

Black-eyed Susan, Bluecurls, Goldenmane Tickseed, Orange Jewelweed, Partridge Pea, Plains Tickseed, Scarlet Sage, Yellow Jewelweed.

Grasses and sedges (12)

Arrowfeather Threeawn, Big Bluestem, Bushy Bluestem, Eastern Gamagrass, Little Bluestem, Lopsided Indian Grass, Poverty Oatgrass, Purpletop, Side Oats Grama, Switchgrass, Virginia Wild Rye, Yellow Indian Grass.

A plant is shown here only where a list marks it for pollinators, bees, butterflies, moths or hummingbirds, or as a butterfly host plant. Entries marked per list: UGA B 987 Part I: 19 entries; UGA B 987 Part III: 86 entries; UGA B 987 Part IV: 12 entries. Ferns are not shown even where a list marks one.

Regions in the Georgia lists

• UGA B 987 Part I names regions, but its entries are not split by region here.
• UGA B 987 Part II covers the whole state.
• UGA B 987 Part III covers the whole state.
• UGA B 987 Part IV covers the whole state.

None of the lists divides the state by county.

Where the Georgia native plant lists come from

• Native Plants for Georgia Part I: Trees, Shrubs and Woody Vines, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension, Bulletin 987. Date: Reviewed August 2024. 144 entries used. Read November 13, 2026.
• Native Plants for Georgia Part II: Ferns, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension, Bulletin 987-2. Date: Reviewed August 2024. 39 entries used. Read November 13, 2026.
• Native Plants for Georgia Part III: Wildflowers, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension, Bulletin 987-3. Date: Reviewed August 2024. 165 entries used. Read November 13, 2026.
• Native Plants for Georgia Part IV: Grasses and Sedges, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension, Bulletin 987-4. Date: Reviewed August 2024. 58 entries used. Read November 13, 2026.

Only lists from the land-grant extension service, state agencies and federal agencies are used. Nursery, nonprofit and society lists are not.

More for Georgia: Georgia gardening, invasive and banned plants, planting zone map, frost dates and what to plant now.