Anita’s Blog — Potato Tree Companions

For those interested in a small, colorful butterfly and hummingbird garden, I’ve listed what’s planted around my potato tree in a 10- by 30-foot plot (listed mostly by height, definitely not by girth of adult plants):

• Caesalpinia, Caesalpinia Mexicana – attracts hummingbirds and butterflies
• Potato tree, Solanum erianthum, — all sorts of fun. See “Consider the Potato Tree” blog
• Vasey’s Adelia, Adelia vaseyi, — Mexican bluewing butterfly host plant
• Coral bean tree, Erythrina herbacea, — hummingbirds
• Turk’s cap – Malvaviscus drummondii – hummingbird and butterfly nectar plant – can get unruly; does best in partial shade. Host to mallow scrub-hairstreak and Turk’s cap white-skipper butterflies.
• Blue and red porterweed, Stachytarpheta jamaicensis and Stachytarpheta urticifolia – butterfly nectar plants, hummingbirds
• Three milkweeds, — host to monarch and queen butterflies
  • Tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, — up to 28 inches tall
  • Zizotes, Asclepias oenotheroides – average height is 12-15 inches
  • Climbing milkweed, Funastrum cynanchoides; (trained up a tree at the end of the garden).
• Texas lantana, Lantana urticoides, — great nectar plant for butterflies
• Blue mistflower, Chromolaena odorata fall-blooming, great butterfly nectar plant
• Spring mistflower, Tamaulipa azurea – butterfly nectar plant
• Trixis, Trixis inula – nectar, butterflies
• Scarlet sage, Salvia coccinea – attracts hummingbirds and butterflies
• Heliotrope, Heliotropium agniospermum – nectar, attracts blues, skippers and other small butterflies
• Pigeon berry, Rivina humilis – chachalacs and other birds eat the berries
• Ruella, Ruellia nudiflora – host to several butterflies including malachite and white peacock
• Runyon’s water willow, Justica runyonii – host to malachite butterfly
• Snapdragon vine, Maurandya antirrhiniflora – host for common buckeye butterfly