Avocado
Persea americana
Found in suburban woodlands, hammocks. FloraQuest, phone app (app page) What its natural habitat tells you
Not native to Florida. How scores work Is it native here?
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At a glance
Not yet recorded · Height · Spread · Light · Soil · Life cycle · Leaves · Bloom
This plant is missing most of its facts, so Quercus is looking them up in old botany books.
Recorded in 8 Florida counties.
Natural habitats
Places it grows wild. Not a planting requirement. Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.

Dense, evergreen groves of live oak, magnolia and other hardwoods in the southern Coastal Plain, from dry oak domes to wet hydric hammocks and south Florida's tropical hammocks; salt-shaped maritime hammocks are maritime forests.
Who uses this plant?
40CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including FL
Genus host records with ranges including FL · Persea
- Papilio troilusSpicebush Swallowtail
- Argyrotaenia amatanaPondapple Leafroller Moth
- Automeris ioIo Moth
- Caloptilia violacellaTick-Trefoil Caloptilia
- Choristoneura rosaceanaOblique-Banded Leafroller Moth, Rosaceous Leaf Roller
- Chrysodeixis includensSoybean Looper Moth
- Cryptaspasma bipenicillaWhite-Dotted Cryptaspasma
- Cryptothelea gloveriiOrange Bagworm
- Eacles imperialisImperial Moth, Imperial Spiny Caterpillar
- Epimecis detextaAvacado Spanworm Moth
Show all 40
- Epimecis hortariaTulip-Tree Beauty
- Feltia subterraneaSubterranean Dart, Granulate Cutworm
- Helicoverpa zeaCorn Earworm Moth
- Homaledra octagonellaOctagonal Casemaker Moth
- Hypercompe scriboniaGiant Leopard Moth, Great Leopard Moth
- Marmara gulosaCitrus Peelminer
- Oedemasia concinnaRed-Humped Caterpillar, Red-Humped Appleworm
- Oiketicus abbotiiAbbot's Bagworm Moth
- Orgyia detritaLive Oak Tussock Moth, Fir Tussock Moth
- Oxydia vesuliaSpurge Spanworm Moth
- Papilio cresphontesEastern Giant Swallowtail
- Papilio glaucusEastern Tiger Swallowtail
- Papilio palamedesPalamedes Swallowtail
- Platynota rostranaOmnivorous Platynota
- Platynota stultanaOmnivorous Leafroller
- Prolimacodes badiaSkiff Moth, Skiff Caterpillar
- Spodoptera eridaniaSouthern Armyworm Moth
- Spodoptera frugiperdaFall Armyworm Moth
- Thyridopteryx ephemeraeformisEvergreen Bagworm Moth
- Urodus parvulaBumelia Webworm
- Amorbia vero
- Caloptilia burserella
- Caloptilia perseae
- Cenopis lamberti
- Deuterollyta majuscula
- Gonodonta bidens
- Phyllocnistis hyperpersea
- Phyllocnistis longipalpa
- Phyllocnistis subpersea
- Riculorampha ancyloides
2BirdsRecorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim
Recorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim · Persea
- Sialia sialisEastern Bluebird
- Turdus migratoriusAmerican Robin
Direct food only: birds recorded eating this genus across North America. Caterpillars on host plants also feed nesting birds. NC Native Plant Society: butterfly gardening
Plant details
- Family
- Lauraceae
Safety has not been reviewed for this plant; check toxicity and thorns before planting.
Conservation status
| Florida rank | SNA |
|---|---|
| Global rank | Not available |
| FL status | Not verified |
| Federal status | Not verified |
Native alternatives
Find natives for your gardenSources
- Atlas of Florida Plants
- NatureServe Explorer
- Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)
- Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Smith, Bachelder, Russell, Morales, Mosher & Seltmann 2024, Bee-Specialization-Modeling v0.6.1 (specialist host table compiled from J. Fowler's pollen specialist bee lists), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)
- Narango, Tallamy & Shropshire 2020, Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species, Nature Communications

