Native Plants

Due to variations in landscape, soil, sun and some other factors, native plants can vary from area to area throughout Willoughby. Below is a list of native plants which can be helpful to refer to if you are looking to plant native flora in you garden.

About half of the area, particularly the higher ridges and main plateau has clay-rich, fertile soil. This includes Chatswood, much of Willoughby, and the more elevated parts of Artarmon and Naremburn. These areas used to be covered with Blue Gum High Forest, which is now gone except for some scattered trees.

See the lists below for local native flora, or for more detailed information, see the Bushland Plan of Management.

Chatswood and parts of Willoughby, Artarmon and Naremburn

  • Blue Gum - Eucalyptus saligna
  • Blackbutt - Eucalyptus pilularis
  • Turpentine - Syncarpia glomulifera
  • Smooth-barked Apple - Angophora costata
  • Sydney Peppermint - Eucalyptus piperita
  • Red Mahogany - Eucalyptus resinifera
  • Long-leaved Mock Olive - Notelaea longifolia
  • Elderberry Panax - Polyscias sambucifolia
  • Dwarf Apple - Breynia oblongifolia
  • Bearded Heath - Leucopogon juniperinus
  • Graceful Pea Bush - Pultenaea flexilis
  • Clematis
  • Bearded Tylophora - Tylophora barbata

Sandstone ridges along Middle Harbour and Lane Cove

  • Scribbly Gums - Eucalyptus haemastoma
  • Red Bloodwood - Eucalyptus gummifera
  • Northern Scribbly Gum - Eucalyptus racemosa
  • Black She-oak - Allocasuarina littoralis
  • Old Man Banksia - Banksia serrata
  • Flax-leafed Wattle - Acacia linifolia
  • Heath Banksia - Banksia ericifolia
  • Silver Banksia - Banksia marginate
  • Willow-leaved Crowea - Crowea saligna
  • Coral Heath - Epacris longiflora
  • Spiny-headed Mat-rush - Lomandra longifolia

Willoughby’s sandstone-lined creeks, gullies and tidal flats

  • False Bracken Fern - Culcita dubia
  • Puched Coral Fern - Gleichenia dicarpa
  • Coachwood - Ceratopetalum apetalum
  • Tree Fern - Cyathea sp
  • Samphire - Sarcocornia quinqueflora
  • Swamp Oak - Casuarina glauca
  • Common Reed - Phragmites
  • Rush - Juncus
  • Prickly Paperbark - Melaleuca styphelioides

Western side of Willoughby and in Chatswood West

  • Grey Mangrove - Avicennia marina
  • River Mangrove - Aegiceras corniculatum
  • Reed - Phragmites australis
  • Beaded Glasswort - Sarcocornia quinqueflora
  • Creeping Brookweed - Samolus repens
  • Grey Ironbark - Eucalyptus paniculata
  • Woody Pear - Xylomelum pyriforme
  • Flaxleaf Paperbark - Melaleuca linariifolia
  • Sydney Peppermint - Eucalyptus piperita
  • Smooth-barked Apple - Angophora costata
  • Port Jackson Figs - Ficus rubiginosa
  • Hairy Clerodendrum - Clerodendrum tomentosum
  • Long-leaved Mock Olive - Notelaea longifolia
  • Muttonwood - Rapanea variabilis
  • Cheese Tree - Glochidion ferdinandi
  • Native Daphne - Pittosporum undulatum
  • Bird's Nest Fern - Asplenium australasicum
  • Tree fern - Cyathea cooperi
  • Sweet Sarsparilla - Smilax glyciphylla
  • Black Wattle trees - Callicoma serratifolia