Deer Resistant Native Plants

Many people have had unfortunate experiences as a result of white-tailed deer overpopulation. Lyme disease, vehicle collisions, and crop losses are examples. Deer can also cause significant landscape damage, both from browsing foliage or twig tips and by injuring young trees. "Buck rub," when male deer rub antlers on tree trunks and other woody vegetation in autumn, can seriously injure or kill a young tree.

With the current overabundance of deer, gardening with plants resistant to deer browsing is key to successful gardening in Maryland. There is no deer-proof plant, and frustratingly, lists of which plants are deer-resistant vary so much they are sometimes in direct contradiction with one another. This is because deer food preferences vary depending on what else is available to eat at any particular time and location. When their favorite foods are in short supply, they will eat whatever remains, even plants like milkweed that would otherwise be toxic. The following lists consist of species that usually do not suffer significant browsing damage.

Grasses, sedges, and rushes

Ferns

Other herbaceous plants

Woody plants (trees and shrubs)

As an example, although Eastern redcedar is deer-resistant, when deer are overpopulated they will eat the lower twigs, leaving a characteristic silhouette that has a narrow or bare base to the height of the browse line.

If a native plant is too vulnerable to survive deer in your garden, it's also too vulnerable to survive deer in local parks. Although Maryland has hundreds of thousands of acres of natural areas in which native plants could thrive, species susceptible to browsing are being eaten into oblivion and overrun with invasive species that deer often don't eat. As we lose these plant species, we also lose the insects, songbirds, and other wildlife that depend on them. The only effective and long-term solution to the challenges of gardening with deer pressure, or to the conservation of native vegetation in natural areas, is to bring the deer population back down to sustainable levels (that which a balanced, healthy ecosystem can support).

Deer favorites

Some native plant species are favorite food sources for white-tailed deer. As a result,
they are disappearing from natural areas.