To attract the greatest variety of wildlife to your garden you need to provide a habitat with structural diversity as well as plant diversity. What does this mean? This means that a garden with only trees, shrubs and mown lawns is not very inviting for most small creatures. What you must provide is a well developed shrub and herb layer using plants which are useful to your local fauna.

You need to provide an area into which small birds can escape from aggressive bigger birds - this means an impenetrable ticket which offers both refuge and nesting sites. Also you need tufting and clumping plants, climbers, groundcovers and grasses. Finally you need a mulch of twigs and leaves for insects and lizards. The presence of permanent water will increase the number of visiting birds and can provide habitat for amphibians.

Get the picture! Lots of layers! Lots of complexity!

Listed below is just a small selection of native plants to help you get started with turning your garden into a haven for native wildlife. The list is appropriate for many areas in and around Sydney.

For reasons of ecological integrity remember to plant only native species which occur in your local area. Information on local species can usually be obtained from your local Australian Plants Society branch, Catchment Management Committee or Local Council.

Let's start from the ground layer and work up.

Grasses

• Themeda australis - Kangaroo grass: a tussock grass, with beautiful bronze highlights, provides seed for birds and butterflies and protective habitat for small reptiles and amphibians.
• Danthonia spp - Wallaby Grasses: provide seeds for birds, attracts butterflies. Some moth larvae feed on the roots.
• Dichelachne sp. - Plume Grasses: butterfly attracting.
• Microlaena stipoides - Weeping Grass: an excellent habitat plant. The Common Brown Ringlet Butterfly's caterpillars as well as finches feed on native grasses.

Tufting and clumping plants

• Dianella spp - Flax Lilies: their beautiful blue berries provide fruit for birds, attract butterflies and insects.
• Lomandra spp - Mat Rushes: offer refuge & nesting sites. Attract butterflies, insects, seed & fruit eating birds
• Crinum pedunculatum - Swamp Lily, River Lily: the bases of the thick fleshy leaves provide frog habitat.
• Junus spp - Rushes: offer great habitat, attract seed and fruit eating birds and butterflies.
• Gahnia spp - Sword Grass or Saw Sedge: all gahnias are excellent habitat plants. Gahnia sieberiana is the host plant for Sword-grass Brown Butterfly larvae They lay their eggs on the plant, the larvae hatch and feed on the foliage.

Climbers

• Billardiera scandens - Apple Berry, Dumplings. Bird and butterfly attracting. The green fruits are edible on turning purple!
• Clematis aristata - Old Man's Beard, Traveler's Joy: very good nesting site for birds and the masses of white flowers attract butterflies and insects
• Cissus antarctica - Watervine: offers shelter & nesting sites; birds like its berries, attracts moths and ringtails.
• Hardenbergia violacea - False Sarsaparilla attracts seed & fruit eating birds, offers refuge and nesting sites, attracts butterflies, moths, bees and small insects.
• Smilax glyciphylla - Native Sarsaparilla: provides nest making material; birds and possums like its bunches of black berries
• Kennedia spp - Coral Peas: attract nectar, seed & fruit eating birds, butterflies, moths, small insects and bees.

Groundcovers

• Commelina cyanea - Scurvy Weed: shelter for ground dwelling small lizards and frogs
• Centella asiatica - shelter for small lizards.
• Carpobrotus glaucescens - Pig Face: the purple fruits provide bird food.
• Scaevola spp - Fan Flowers: butterflies and insects love their nectar supplied over many months of the year.
• Hibbertia spp - Guinea Flowers: offer food for insects, moths, butterflies birds. Native bees collect the pollen to feed baby bees.
• Correa spp - their tubular flowers are rich in nectar which attract both birds & butterflies
• Dampiera spp - the insect attracting flowers provide food for small birds
• Goodenia spp - the bright yellow flowers attract insects and butterflies which provide food for small birds

Ferns

• Blechnum spp - Water Ferns: shelter many small birds
• Pteridium esculentum - Bracken: nesting and shelter for Fairy Wrens, Silvereyes and other small birds
• Gleichenia spp - Coral Ferns: form thickets providing bird refuge
• Cyathea spp - Tree ferns: native bees nest in the broken trunks
• Doodia aspera - Rasp Fern: will mass to form a low thicket offering shelter

Shrubs

• Acacia spp - Wattles: any of the small local wattles provide seed for birds, and nectar for butterflies. The ones with dense foliage give shelter and nesting sites for small birds, attract moths, bees, and ants
• Breynia oblongifolia - the fruits resembling tiny apples provide food for birds and butterflies
• Bursaria spinosa - Blackthorn: great wildlife habitat. Its prickly foliage gives safe refuge. The sweetly scented flowers attract butterflies. It is the host plant for the larvae of many butterflies and in particular the Eltham Copper Butterfly. Double-barred finches feel safe nesting here.
• Pultenaea spp - Bush-peas: attract native bees, butterflies moth and seed eating birds
• Zieria spp - a wide range of butterflies and many small insects visit these plants

Trees

• Angophora hispida - one of the best plants for attracting a wide range of insects
• Allocasuarina spp - She-oaks: attract seed and fruit eating birds
• Banksia spp - very important genus of plants for wildlife being a food source for birds, animals and insects as well as providing nesting sites
• Callistemon spp - Bottlebrushes: attract nectar feeding, seed, insect and fruit eating birds plus butterflies and they are pollinated by native bees
• Callitris spp - Cypress Pines: attract insects, birds and butterflies Hakea spp - the prickly ones of this genus are great for nesting and refuge
• Grevillea spp - attract nectar and insect eating birds and butterflies
• Eucalyptus spp - all species attract a wide range of wildlife

References

• Elliot, Rodger ( 1994 ) Attracting wildlife to your garden Thomas C Lothian Pty Ltd., Melbourne
• Robinson, Les ( 1991 ) Field Guide to the Native Plants of Sydney Kangaroo Press, Kenthurst
• Information provided by AABR's Newsletter Fauna Comer editor, Danni Ondinea. Many thanks!
• Compiled by Lyn Hulme Secretary, Friends of Lane Cove National Park and member of AABR

Frances Davis

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