Bee City USA Asheville Native Plant Finder

About This List

Bee City USA-Asheville is excited to share this updated native pollinator-friendly plant list! As the birthplace of the national Bee City USA program in 2012, we are gratified that throughout our community, individuals, organizations, and businesses are doing their part to reverse staggering global pollinator declines. Please check out our Pollinator Habitat Certification and our annual Pollination Celebration! during National Pollinator Week in June.

Why Landscape with Pollinators in Mind?

Asheville's Bee City USA program encourages everyone to incorporate native plants into their landscapes and avoid insect-killing pesticides as much as possible. Here's why. Over the millennia, hundreds of thousands of plant and animal pollinator species have perfected their pollination dances. Pollinating animals rely upon the carbohydrate-rich nectar and/or the protein-rich pollen supplied by flowers, and plants rely on pollinators to carry their pollen to other flowers to produce seeds and sustain their species. Nearly 90% of the world's wild flowering plant species depend on pollinators to help them reproduce! Plants and pollinators are foundational to our planet's rich biodiversity generally. For example, 90% of terrestrial birds rely on moth and butterfly caterpillars as baby food.

About This Native Plant List

An elite task force, listed at the end of this document, verified which plants were native to Western North Carolina and agreed this list should focus on plants' value to pollinators as food—including nectar, pollen, and larval host plants for moth and butterfly caterpillars, as well as nesting habitat for bumble and other bees. While not all moths and butterflies are pollinators, many species are. “Specialized Bee” refers to bee species that gather pollen only from a single plant family, a few related genera, a single genus, or a single species. Pollen specialists represent at least one-quarter of the world's 20,000 species of bees. In turn, many plant species are pollinated by a limited set of pollinators, sometimes only one! The field of pollination ecology is exploding and we are learning about new plant/pollinator relationships almost daily.

These lists are not exhaustive; only native species available for purchase from local suppliers who responded to our survey are listed. Although many are beloved by pollinators, popular, non-native plants like annual bedding plants, herbs and fruit trees are not included in our list because they are already commonly used. Of course, pollinators may collect nectar and pollen from non-native plants, even from invasive exotics like Japanese knotweed. Our hope is to retain as many native plant and pollinator species as possible because many pollinators are picky, and many plants are very selective about their pollinators. In many cases, one or the other will disappear without its partner. It will take all of us to reverse pollinator declines. The good news is that conservation literally starts at home. Many pollinators seem to like city life as much, or maybe more, than rural life because of the diversity of plants home gardeners and landscapers offer!