All are superb butterfly-attractors, and birds feed on the fruit of all. All have white flowers that attract butterflies, especially ruddy daggerwings. The red fruit on all species is eaten by birds. Birds feed on the tight clusters of small, reddish fruit borne on the branch tips of female trees. Each branch is tipped with a spike of small, brilliant red fruit fed on by numerous species of birds.
Hummingbirds love it, and it is the larval food for the small cassius blue butterfly.
Palms Most of our native palms produce small fruit that is attractive to a wide variety of birds, including exotic parrots. An exception is our native saw palmetto , Serenoa repens , which produces fruit too large for most birds. Saw palmetto does offer good cover and its strongly fragrant flowers are attractive to honeybees and small butterflies, especially the Florida atala. Plant it around your yard as a border plant or in thickets as it appears in nature. Ground covers Ground covers can be used to fill in open spaces in the landscape.