Keystone native plants
Wildlife value is not evenly spread across native plants. A small number of genera — oaks, willows, cherries, goldenrods, asters — support the great majority of local caterpillar species, and the rest contribute comparatively little; research by Doug Tallamy and the National Wildlife Federation put numbers to it. If you only have room for a few plants, these are the ones that carry a food web. One oak can host hundreds of caterpillar species.
Bedfellow lists 362 of these.
The 30 most-observed are listed here — see all 362 in search.
- Red Maple (Acer rubrum)
- Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)
- Pin Oak (Quercus palustris)
- American Beech (Fagus grandifolia)
- Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus)
- Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum)
- Boxelder (Acer negundo)
- Green Ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica)
- Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
- Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra)
- Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum)
- Black Cherry (Prunus serotina)
- Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida)
- White Oak (Quercus alba)
- American Basswood (Tilia americana)
- Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa)
- American Elm (Ulmus americana)
- Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia)
- Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus)
- Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides)
- Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)
- Mapleleaf Viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium)
- Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana)
- Black Walnut (Juglans nigra)
- Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides)
- Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis)
- Antelope Horns (Asclepias asperula)
- Green Antelopehorn (Asclepias viridis)
- Bigleaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum)
- Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis)