Drought Tolerant Annuals and Perennials

With ongoing drought, conserving water in the landscape is increasingly important. One way to conserve water is selecting drought tolerant plants. A drought tolerant plant is one that can survive on average rainfall with little or no supplemental water once established.

Drought tolerant plants tend to have characteristics that minimize water loss from leaves and/or maximize water uptake by roots. These characteristics include deep roots; gray leaf color; small, succulent, hairy, or waxy leaves; or the ability to go dormant during drought. 

Plants with smaller leaves or leaves that are gray in color, hairy, waxy or succulent lose less moisture from their leaves through transpiration. Large leaves and lush growing foliage promoted by excess nitrogen lose moisture faster, making them less tolerant of dry conditions.

As a rule, native plants are considered more drought tolerant than non-native plants. While this is not always true, native plants are often more adapted to or tolerant of local growing conditions and this can help with water conservation.

As suggested list of drought tolerant plants from the University of Connecticut College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources.