Plant Native Scrub

Dorothy Mundell of Lake Placid lives on four acres of sand pine scrub. Her yard, where she gardens with native plants, is visited by raccoon, bobcat, fox and many other animals. Gopher tortoises live there, foraging on the gopher apple, which spreads in time to become a nice groundcover. Mockingbirds and other birds eat the fruit of her beautyberry bushes. Hummingbirds sip nectar from the firebush. Squirrels and scrub jays eat the mast of scrub oaks and scrub hickories.

Dorothy particularly loves butterflies and the color they bring to a yard. Many lovely native scrub plants like blazing star and sky blue lupine provide sources of nectar for butterflies and are larval food plants as well. When butterflies reproduce, they are plant specific, meaning that they lay their eggs on particular plants, so that when the larvae hatch, they have their specific food to eat. Zebra swallowtails lay eggs on the pawpaw.

Zebra longwings, Julias and Gulf fritillaries use the passion vine. American painted ladies and pearl crescents prefer asters. Butterfly weed is a popular butterfly plant, especially for orange butterflies like the queen and monarch -- it is from butterfly weed that these butterflies obtain the toxin that protects them from predators.

If you live along the Lake Wales Ridge, consider planting perennials native to scrub that attract wildlife to your backyard. Never transplant native species unless the place they are growing is set to be bulldozed.