Australian native plants to grow under eucalyptus trees
A large eucalypt in an established garden is valuable. The canopy, birdlife, scale and the shade it provides are irreplaceable. But planting beneath one is genuinely difficult.
The reasons many plants fail are specific and worth understanding before reaching for your spade. Once you know what is actually happening in the soil and in the canopy, the plants that belong below a eucalypt become clearer.
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Why planting under eucalypts is so difficult
Root competition
Eucalypts have deep sinker roots to access subsoil water and lateral feeder roots that occupy the top 20 to 40cm of soil and extend well beyond the canopy. These feeder roots are aggressive competitors for water and nutrients. New plants introduced into this zone face immediate competition from a system that has spent years consolidating its hold on the available resources.
Dry shade
The canopy of a large eucalypt intercepts a significant proportion of rainfall before it reaches the soil. The remaining water that does penetrate is quickly absorbed by the root system. The result is an environment that is simultaneously shaded and dry — two pressures that most plants struggle with individually and that very few can tolerate in combination.
Allelopathy
Allelopathy is a form of chemical competition that has evolved in eucalypts as a mechanism to reduce competition. The compounds it creates leach into the soil with rainfall and accumulate in the leaf litter layer, inhibiting germination of other plants. Native species that naturally co-occur with eucalypts in the wild have evolved a degree of tolerance to these compounds.
Hydrophobic soil
Eucalypt leaf litter can contribute to water repellence at the surface that causes rain to sheet off rather than penetrate. In combination with dry, compacted conditions and dense feeder roots, hydrophobic soil means that even when rain does fall, new plantings may not receive the benefit of it.
Choose locally native understorey species
The most reliable plants under eucalypts are those that naturally co-occur with them in the wild. These species have evolved alongside the allelopathic compounds, the dry shade and the root competition of a eucalypt canopy over thousands of generations. If possible, identify the species of eucalypt in your garden and choose understorey plants drawn from the same plant community.
Native plants that can work under eucalypts
Each plant below has evolved a combination of dry shade tolerance, resistance to allelopathic compounds and an ability to compete in root-dense soils. They are not guaranteed to succeed in every position, but they give you the best realistic chance.
Nodding saltbush (Einadia nutans)
Nodding saltbush is one of the most reliable performers in the conditions that defeat almost everything else. Its arrow-shaped leaves and sprawling stems handle the allelopathic environment, root competition and moisture stress that characterise the eucalypt root zone.
The berries are an important food source for small birds and lizards, which then distribute the seed. If you find it establishing naturally at the base of a eucalypt in your garden, it has self-seeded from bird activity and is doing exactly what it evolved to do.
Kidney weed (Dichondra repens)
Kidney weed is a low, creeping groundcover that naturally colonises shaded areas beneath trees. Its round, kidney-shaped leaves form a dense low mat that suppresses weeds without building significant mass or competing heavily for resources. It is most reliable in positions where some moisture reaches the soil — toward the drip line rather than directly beneath a dense canopy in very dry conditions. It tolerates foot traffic once established, making it a practical option for informal paths through the understorey planting.
Bulbine lily (Bulbine bulbosa)
Bulbine lily is one of the most reliable flowering plants for the dry, root-dense conditions under a eucalypt canopy. It grows naturally in eucalypt grassy woodland and dry sclerophyll forest across eastern and southern Australia, where it has co-evolved with the allelopathic compounds and moisture stress. The bright yellow star flowers appear in spring providing nectar for native bees at a time when the understorey is often bare. After flowering the plant dies back completely and is dormant through summer.
Plant tube stock using a hori-hori to minimise root zone disturbance. Mark the position with a stake so the dormant tubers are not accidentally disturbed with a trowel in summer. It self-seeds in suitable conditions and will gradually naturalise across the planting area over several seasons.
Lomandra (Lomandra longifolia)
Lomandra is the most structurally robust option for planting under eucalypts. Its stiff, arching leaves provide year-round visual interest and its root system is fibrous. It tolerates dry shade, poor soils, compacted ground and intermittent moisture — conditions that map almost exactly onto the environment under a large eucalypt. Expect a slow first season followed by increasingly vigorous growth once roots are established in the native soil.
Tasman flax lily (Dianella tasmanica)
Dianella is a natural companion to eucalypts in the cool to warm temperate regions of south-eastern Australia, growing in the understorey of dry sclerophyll forests and grassy woodlands. Its arching strappy leaves and spring flower spikes followed by glossy purple berries provide seasonal interest in what is often a visually flat space. It handles dry shade, root competition and frost simultaneously. It is particularly useful as a mid-layer plant beneath taller understorey shrubs, or massed across a broad area where leaf litter accumulates. See our article on native grasses and strappy plants for companion options.
Kangaroo grass (Themeda triandra)
Kangaroo grass is the defining grass of eucalypt grassy woodland across temperate Australia. It grows naturally in open eucalypt woodland where it receives filtered light through the canopy and competes with the same root systems that make planting under eucalypts difficult. It requires more light than the other groundcovers listed here, so it performs best at or beyond the drip line where filtered sun reaches it. It is important for native insects and birds and signals a functioning soil ecology beneath the tree.
Poa grasses (Poa sieberiana, Poa labillardierei)
Poa sieberiana and tussock grass (Poa labillardierei) are among the very few grasses that persist in shaded conditions under a eucalypt canopy. They are found naturally in the understorey of dry sclerophyll and montane eucalypt forests and their fine, arching foliage creates a soft naturalistic texture.
They also support a range of invertebrates, small lizards and ground-feeding birds. Mass planting of five or more clumps creates a meadow effect that reads as intentional. Maintenance is minimal: cut back to 10 to 15cm every two to three years in late winter to remove dead material and stimulate fresh growth.
Hardenbergia (Hardenbergia violacea)
Hardenbergia grows naturally through the understorey and into the canopy of eucalypt forests across much of Australia. As a nitrogen-fixing legume it actively improves soil conditions as it establishes. Its purple, white or pink pea flowers in late winter and early spring provide colour at exactly the time when the garden beneath a eucalypt is at its most bare. It can be allowed to scramble as a low-maintenance groundcover or trained up the trunk of the eucalypt itself where it will climb naturally. It is one of the best native plants for bees.
White correa (Correa alba)
White correa is exceptionally tough — it handles salt, drought and shade simultaneously and its tubular white flowers from autumn through winter provide nectar for honeyeaters and spinebills at exactly the time when the eucalypt canopy is at its most bare and the garden beneath it most visible. It works well as a structural mid-layer shrub at the drip line, or massed as an informal low screen along the outer edge of the understorey planting. It requires minimal maintenance and no fertiliser. Learn more about winter-flowering plants for native birds.
Necklace fern (Asplenium flabellifolium)
The necklace fern is one of the few genuinely dry-shade-tolerant ferns in the Australian flora and a natural inhabitant of the dry, rocky and root-filled environments found under established eucalypts. Its delicate arching fronds and self-propagating tip plantlets make it an unusual and rewarding plant for positions where almost nothing else will grow. It is best used in the drier, shadier inner zones of the understorey planting. It naturalises slowly but, once established, requires essentially no attention.
Working safely near established eucalypts
Eucalypts are known for dropping branches without warning and often in calm conditions. This is not a malfunction — it is a survival mechanism the trees evolved to shed weight during drought. If there are significant dead branches overhead, have them assessed and removed by a qualified arborist before undertaking any planting work beneath the tree.
Protecting the root system
Severing significant numbers of roots causes stress to eucalypts, so only use hand tools in the root zone. Never use a rotary hoe, powered cultivator or spade driven deep repeatedly across the root zone. Do not build raised garden beds, install edging, lay irrigation lines or lay landscape fabric over the root zone. All of these restrict oxygen exchange and moisture penetration to the feeder roots, which affects tree health over time.
The trunk exclusion zone
Leave the area within one metre of the trunk entirely unplanted and unworked. This zone contains the buttress roots and the structural root system that keeps the tree stable. Piling mulch, soil or organic matter against the trunk causes collar rot and is one of the most common ways gardeners inadvertently damage large trees.
Approach: how to establish planting under a eucalypt
Use tube stock, not advanced plants
Tube stock causes minimal soil disturbance at planting, which matters both for the eucalypt's root system and for the surrounding soil ecology. Use a hori-hori knife to create precise planting pockets — push it into the soil, lever it to open a slot, insert the tube stock root ball and firm the soil closed. This disturbs a fraction of the root zone compared to digging with a trowel or spade.
Mulch carefully
A 5 to 7cm layer of coarse organic mulch applied across the planting area helps retain what moisture does reach the soil. Keep mulch clear of the trunk and the base of any new plants. The existing leaf litter layer can be incorporated as it is part of the ecological environment understorey plants are adapted to.
Water during establishment only
New plantings under a eucalypt need support through their first one to two dry seasons. Water deeply and infrequently — the goal is to encourage new roots to follow moisture downward. A hose on a slow setting directed at each plant's root zone for several minutes is more effective than a quick spray over the whole area.
Avoid exotic species
Exotic shade plants like agapanthus, mondo grass, liriope and ivy are commonly used under trees because they tolerate low light. None of them contribute to the habitat value that makes an established eucalypt so ecologically significant. For more guidance, see our article on highly invasive plants you may have in your garden.
Working with what the tree gives you
A large eucalypt in an established garden is doing something no amount of deliberate planting can replicate quickly: it is providing canopy, habitat, deep root ecology and a sense of scale that takes decades to develop. The understorey planting beneath it is not the main event but the layer that connects the tree to the ground and extends its ecological value down to the soil surface.
Approached with that in mind, the constraints of planting under a eucalypt become less frustrating. The goal is a functioning ecological layer beneath a tree that is already doing most of the work.
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A Guide to Australian Native Gardening
How to plan, plant and care for a thriving native garden, whatever your experience level.
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