Plant selection
Try our Plant Search Tool to select native plants to grow based on region, soil moisture, amount of sunlight and its attractiveness to pollinators and natural enemies. Visit our Regional Plant Lists section to help determine plant suitability for regions in Michigan. You can also scroll down to access our free plant fact sheets.
Plant fact sheets
The plant fact sheets listed below include reference to small, medium and large numbers of insects attracted to a particular native plant as measured in our research at Michigan State University. These can be loosely measured as:
- Small numbers - less than 2 insects per square meter of plant material
- Medium numbers - 2 to 10 insects per square meter of plant material
- Large numbers - greater than 10 insects per square meter of plant material
The plant fact sheets are listed here first by the plant's common name and then in a second listing by scientific name.
Common name listing
Highly attractive
- Angelica
- Blue lobelia
- Buckwheat (non-native plant)
- Canada anemone
- Common boneset
- Common cowparsnip
- Cup plant
- Golden alexanders
- Horsemint/Spotted bee balm
- Indian hemp
- Meadowsweet
- New England aster
- Pale-leaved sunflower
- Riddell’s goldenrod
- Sand coreopsis/tickseed
- Shrubby cinquefoil
- Yellow coneflower/Pinnate prairie coneflower
Moderately attractive
- Butterfly weed
- Buttonbush
- Coriander (non-native plant)
- Culver’s root
- Evening primrose
- Faba bean/Horsebean/Broad bean (non-native plant)
- Hoary vervain/Hoary verbena
- Ironweed/Missouri ironweed
- Late figwort/Carpenter’s square
- Michigan rose/Climbing rose
- Nodding wild onion
- Pale Indian plantain
- Penstemon/Hairy beardtongue
- Rough blazing star
- Showy goldenrod
- Smooth blue aster
- Swamp milkweed
- Sweet alyssum (non-native plant)
- Wild strawberry/Virginia strawberry
- Yellow giant hyssop
Low/no attractiveness
- Alum root
- Columbine
- Dill (non-native plant)
- Hairy bush-clover
- Leadplant
- New Jersey tea
- Red-berried elder
- Round-leaved ragwort
- Showy tick trefoil
- Virginia waterleaf
- Wild geranium
Scientific name listing
Highly attractive
- Angelica atropurpurea
- Anemone canadensis
- Apocynum cannabinum
- Aster novae-angliae
- Coreopsis lanceolata
- Eupatorium perfoliatum
- Fagopyrum esculentum (non-native plant)
- Helianthus strumosus
- Heracleum maximum
- Lobelia siphilitica
- Monarda punctata
- Potentilla fruticosa
- Ratibida pinnata
- Silphium perfoliatum
- Solidago riddellii
- Spiraea alba
- Zizia aurea
Moderately attractive
- Agastache nepetoides
- Allium cernuum
- Asclepias incarnata
- Asclepias tuberosa
- Aster laevis
- Cacalia atriplicifolia
- Cephalanthus occidentalis
- Coriandrum sativum (non-native plant)
- Fragaria virginiana
- Liatris aspera
- Lobularia maritima (non-native plant)
- Oenethera biennis
- Penstemon hirsutus
- Rosa setigera
- Scrophularia marilandica
- Solidago speciosa
- Verbena stricta
- Vernonia missurica
- Veronicastrum virginicum
- *Vicia faba (non-native plant)
Low/no attractiveness
- Amorpha canescens
- Anethum graveolens (non-native plant)
- Aquilegia canadensis
- Ceanothus americana
- Desmodium canadense
- Geranium maculatum
- Heuchera americana
- Hydrophyllum virginianum
- Lespedeza hirta
- Sambucus racemosa
- Senecio obovatus
(Nomenclature follows Herman et al. 2001.)
Information prepared by: Doug Landis, Anna Fiedler, Department of Entomology, Michigan State University with assistance by William Schneider of Wildtype. Please note: The information presented at this web site should be considered a guideline to be adapted for your situation. MSU makes no warranty about the use of the information presented here. Read disclaimer.