There are so many that I like. I favor drought tolerant/heat tolerant plants that like conditions as they are in my garden, with little to no soil amendments or fertilizer, and onlly light watering. That means plenty of California natives thrive, along with my many species roses and European/Middle Eastern origin roses. A number of these plants, both roses and others, want to go summer dormant (and if watered and/or fertilized then they won't be able to rest and often will not flower the next year) as they would naturally in the areas where they are native. Of course this kind of care goes against the grain with lots of rose gardeners in mediterranean climate areas like mine, who are then surprised that roses in these classes won't bloom for them. Salvias are in general wonderful here. Salvia 'Celestial Blue' is a CA native and has the most gorgeous blue flowers. No pictures I've seen online truly capture the stunning color. Foliage is silvery and smells heavenly. Likes full sun, lean soil, and little to no summer water. Salvia dorrii 'Gayle Nielson'. CA native. Desert sage. Foliage is silvery grey green and delightfully scented. Heat tolerant and surprisingly shade tolerant too. Winter bloomer. Has pale lavender flowers. Since it is from the desert where sporadic rainfall may occur, this plant likes a few drinks in the summer. Salvia mohavensis. CA native. Newly-planted baby plants last month. I had to wait nearly a year to get them from a specialty grower. Mine haven't bloomed yet but the pictures online show small charming blue flowers. Salvia namaensis. Native to South Africa. Has delicate lacy, crimped leaves which are deceptive because this plant is as tough as nails. Extremely heat and drought tolerant. It has lovely small pale lavender blue flowers and blooms almost year round. I have never fertilized it and rarely water now that it is established. My soil is very sandy loam and quite lean. Salvia spathacea 'Avis Keedy' (yellow flowers) and 'Powerline Pink'. Both are very shade tolerant and actually need some shade and summer water (not a lot). Powerline Pink in particular has especially yummy smelling foliage (lemony sagey scent). Various Salvia greggii and Salvia jamensis or crosses of either or both. Including Salvia 'Hot Lips' (red and white or combination flowers), Salvia 'Elk White Ice' (pure white flowers, heavy bloomer in 90+ degree heat), Salvia 'Elk Lemon Light' (beautiful clear yellow flowers and bright green foliage, nice bushy shape, blooms well in high heat), Salvia 'Mesa Azure' (striking purplish blue flowers, heat and shade tolerant, stays bushy, branches stay flexible rather than going woody and brittle, long bloom period), Salvia 'Teresa' (prolific bloomer, very bushy, lush foliage a nice shade of green, heat and drought tolerant, pretty white flowers touched with pink), and Salvia 'Moonlight' (pale yellow flowers, shade tolerant, heat tolerant, stays small). Ceanothus. My favorites include C. spinosus (almost lime green stems and trunk, yep prickly spines, will tolerate some shade, dislikes summer water, grows quickly, pretty blue flowers, bushy), C. cyaneus (aka lakeside ceanothus, absolutely gorgeous 'cyan' blue flowers, wants to be a small tree, grows fast, likes some shade, will tolerate some summer water, very nice foliage, scented flowers), C. 'Lemon Ice' (variagated yellow and green foliage, blue flowers, will tolerate some shade and summer water, small to moderate sized shrub), C. 'El Dorado' (very similar to Lemon Ice, too new to comment on ultimate size), C. 'Diamond Heights' (groundcover!, needs some shade in high heat areas, variagated foliage, small blue flowers), C. 'Arroyo de la Cruz' (bushy and low growing, mine is in a huge pot in partial shade, and seems quite happy, small foliage, gets water once or twice a month in summer), C. arboreus (very fast growing, somewhat shade tolerant, will be a tree, does not like summer water). Mimulus, aka monkey flowers! I recently planted 2 and am closely watching their progress. So far they have bloomed heavily and appear to be settling in for the worst of the summer heat. I have M. aurantiacus (sticky monkey flower, peachy color flowers) and M. aurantiacus 'Buttercup' (orangey flowers, which I usually don't like, but I do this one). Eriogonum. Wild buckwheat. CA native. I have 3 different kinds, all very drought tolerant. E. fasciculatum 'Dana Point' (has the nicest foliage and prettiest flowers (snow white in color) of all the fasciculatums I've seen--has been smashed multiple times by my big dogs and keeps on growing!), E. parvifolium (seacliff buckwheat, mine has white flowers, but some, depending on grower and where they collected their mother plants, have pinkish flowers), and Eriogonum umbellatum var. polyanthum ‘Shasta Sulfur’ (very low growing, bright yellow flowers). Miscellaneous CA natives: Asclepias fascicularis (narrow leaf milkweed, very attractive foliage, food source for Monarch butterfly caterpillars) Erysimum menziesii (menzies wallflower, in a pot and very happy) Monardella antonina (coyote mint) Monardella odoratissima Monardella 'Russian River' Isocoma menziesii (golden bush) Penstemon 'Margarita BOP' Penstemon grinnellii Penstemon 'Electric Blue' Penstemon azureus Penstemon spectabilis Lotus scoparius (deerweed, nitrogen-fixer, yellow flowers) Olneya tesota (ironwood, a nurse plant as it is a nitrogen-fixer, eventually a small tree, but so slow growing that will take many years, now a tiny shrub, gets small pea-like violet flowers) Helianthemum scoparium (the only CA native rockrose/sunrose, bright yellow flowers) Lonicera subspicata (southern honeysuckle, likes to grow in chaparral, white and pale yellow flowers) Arctostaphylos purissima 'Vandenberg' (a groundcover manzanita with fuzzy white hairs on the stems and snowy white flowers--needs afternoon shade in hot inland areas) Not a shrub, but I have interplanted with them multiple of the CA native, sun-loving, and very drought tolerant grass Bouteloua gracilis 'Blonde Ambition' (eyebrow grass, and the "eyebrows" are blonde). It's a very feathery and delicate looking grass, really lightens an area. Photo is of Salvia namaensis. Melissa This post was edited by Tessiess on Thu, Jul 17, 14 at 18:26

Any sub-tropical exotic catches my eye, like the Gunnera's, Windmill palms(Trachycarpus fortunei), giant ricepaper plant (Tetrapanax papyrifera 'Steroidal Giant'), the many different species of bamboo, hardy eucalyptus, & the hardy banana (Musa basjoo). Also the other hardy and semi-hardy palms such as the Sabal's, (Jubaea chilensis) Chilean Wine Palm, (Butia capitata)Jelly Palm, (Butia eriospatha) Woolly Jelly Palm, plus a few others that I see around the area. I also find the bright flowers of the hardy Grevillea and Callistemon very eye catching. Of course Chilean Firebush (Embothrium coccineum) during the spring also catches my eye along with the bright blue flowers of the Empress Tree (Paulownia tomentosa) I also like the bright yellow flowers of the Scotsbroom, specially during our dark, rainy, depressing spring days. Those bright yellow flowers are so cheery. Scottsbroom also provides cover and food for one of my favorite birds, the valley quail. If it wasn't for the scottsbroom around Olympia there wouldn't be valley quail. I also like the bright cheery flowers of the butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii). There isn't the range of color, fragance, and time of blooming of any other plant for the northwest. They are very attractive.

Unless you are living in an area of savannah woodland I suspect a good diversity of native shrubs may have occurred on your site pre-clearing. There should be quite a few local natives, especially in your area (which I envy). I live on hard clay loam and have great success with Banksias and Grevilleas, but they're all species from areas with clay. I know quite a lot of the most popular WA plants come from deep sand so would doubtless kark it on clay. My past experience with Eucalyptus caesia (pretty much a shrub where I was in western Sydney at the time) shows it to be tolerant of clay, as is Grevillea biternata. Other WA species I am familiar with or have heard of taking well to clay include: Alygone huegelii Astartea fascicularis Boronia megastigma (well, maybe touch and go) Calothamnus quadrifidus Chorizema cordatum (if given a reasonable humus-rich topsoil) Eremophila - most seem to tolerate clay around here Hakea laurina, petiolaris Melaleuca coccinea (worth a try), diosmifolia, laterita Solanum aviculare (grows like lightning to about 2.5m) Some of the eastern natives (and are not too tree-like) that do well on clay in my experience include: Melaleuca parvistaminea, ericifolia, styphelioides Kunzea ambigua, parvifolia, ericoides Banksia marginata, ericifolia, spinulosa, robur, paludosa Grevillea hyrids of many sorts, aspleniifolia, juniperina Baeckia virgata Acacia species (most, especially feathery-leaved ones) Allocasuarina paludosa Atriplex nummularia Bauera rubioides Callistemon citrinus and cultivars Calytrix teragona Correa alba, reflexa cultivars Crowea all Dodonaea viscosa Prostranthera lasianthos, incisa, saxicola Philotheca myoporoides (used to be Eriostemon myoporoides) Indigofera australis Jacksonia scoparia Leptospermum, lots Myoporum montanum and various others Westringia longifolia, fruticosa Mind you, if you grow on limestone this list may be of sparse use. While most of these species are pretty hardy, some loathe high pH. Also, this list applies mainly to better drained clay (white or yellow to reddish) not soggy stagnant clay (grey). My personal preference would be your own local natives, you have so many real beauties.

As for the consensus on the genus being Papilio, that is actually a fluid topic. Heraclides is also being used. This paper explains that P. cresphontes does not get into South America. Also mentions how people don't know how to distinguish them from P. thaos so they misreport P. cresphontes sightings in places where P. cresphontes don't exist. This type of problem is quite common when you have people reporting sightings who are not up to speed with lesser known species that closely resemble widely known species. P. cresphontes starts on page 118. In the "Acknowledgements" part of the paper, the author thanks Dr. Andy Warren. If you are on Twitter, I highly recommend following Dr. Warren. He gets around and posts some wonderful Lepidoptera related things. 1 PHYLOGENY AND REVISION OF THE GENUS HERACLIDES HÜBNER, 1819