Native shrubs and trees deer usually leave alone, and why the lists disagree

No native tree or shrub is deer-proof. On a rating list, deer resistant means deer seldom damage the plant badly where the list was made. Hungry deer eat almost anything within about 5 feet of the ground. The natives they pass by most often have toxic, strong-smelling or tough leaves. Pawpaw, spicebush, northern bayberry and the doghobbles are among them. The ones they seek out, arborvitae and yew above all, are browsed hard in winter. Any young plant is at risk while its shoots are tender and in reach, so cage new plants for their first years wherever deer are many.

What a deer-resistant rating means

Rating lists record what gardeners and nursery people have seen deer do in their region. The Rutgers list was compiled with nursery and landscape professionals, extension staff and Master Gardeners in northern New Jersey. It sorts plants into four classes: rarely damaged, seldom severely damaged, occasionally severely damaged and frequently severely damaged.

Only the first two classes are meant for ground where deer feed, and even those depend on local deer numbers and weather. Other lists give one word, resistant, to plants that usually escape serious damage from browse.

The lists rate garden plants of every origin. Several rated near the top, barberry and autumn olive among them, are invasive shrubs that deer leave standing while they eat the natives around them.

Why the lists disagree

Deer choose from what a place offers. Their choice depends on what else there is to eat at that time and place, and when favorites run short they eat whatever remains. So lists made in different places part ways:

“There is no deer-proof plant, and frustratingly, lists of which plants are deer-resistant vary so much they are sometimes in direct contradiction with one another.” (University of Maryland Extension, Deer Resistant Native Plants)

Rhododendrons show how far. Minnesota’s extension list names rhododendrons and azaleas among the plants deer avoid, while the Rutgers list rates rhododendrons and evergreen azaleas frequently severely damaged. Deer browse rosebay rhododendron mainly in fall and winter.

Deer numbers and weather move a plant from one class to another. Damage climbs where deer are many and in cold weather and deep snow, and it often rises in early spring, when their fat reserves are lowest. In New York a foot of snow was estimated to put 97 percent of the deer’s potential food out of reach, and deer then turn to conifer browse above the snow. Deer usually pass mountain laurel by, but a hard winter changes their minds.

Age matters too. Deer reach only about 5 feet up and prefer young, less fibrous growth, so a sapling is all within reach and all tender. Most browse is taken from twigs under an inch thick and from new growth in spring. A grown tree carries its crown above that reach, while deer can browse a young oak to the ground.

What keeps deer off a plant

Deer avoid plants for their toxicity, their smell or their texture, and the natives they pass by show all three:

• Toxic leaves. Every part of mountain laurel is poisonous, both doghobbles are poisonous, and pawpaw leaves carry acetogenins.
• A strong smell. Crushed spicebush leaves smell spicy, northern bayberry leaves smell of bayberry candles and sweet birch twigs smell of wintergreen. Every part of sassafras smells of root beer, yet deer browse it in every season, so scent alone promises nothing.
• Tough or armed leaves. American holly has thick, leathery leaves with spiny teeth, and the lists rate it resistant. Devilwood’s thick, leathery leaves are seldom browsed, and deer browse the spiny devil’s walking stick only a little. Thorns work once they harden, and deer browse the tips of Washington hawthorn until then.

Natives deer usually leave alone

Blue Whale Trees grows every plant in these tables from seed, and deer usually pass them by. Each row adds the rating lists that name the plant, which do not always agree.

Shrubs, smallest first

Trees

Deer also leave alone two more that we grow, eastern leatherwood for moist shade and common hoptree for dry or average ground, though none of the lists we read rates either. For a privacy screen, American holly is rated resistant on all three eastern lists we read, yet deer browse young hollies in hard winters.

Natives deer seek out

These are deer favorites, the ones to cage until they grow out of reach:

• Northern white cedar, the wild arborvitae: a favorite winter food, and deer can kill trees shorter than about 7 feet.
• Canada yew: browsed so heavily that it has declined across much of its range.
• Pinxterbloom azalea: browsed hard, and our other wild azaleas are damaged often.
• Silky dogwood: browsed eagerly.
• Nannyberry: young viburnums browsed hard, though one extension list calls this one resistant.
• American basswood: browsed hard, so the guard stays on until the trunk is well above browse height.
• Strawberry bush: deer seek out its leaves and twigs.
• Leadplant: deer and rabbits find it delicious.
• Young oaks and hickories. Deer browse a young swamp chestnut oak to the ground and mockernut hickory seedlings hard enough to kill them.

The lists agree, rating arborvitae, yews and pinxterbloom among the worst damaged.

Three shrubs sit in between. Witch hazel is seldom severely damaged on one list and resistant on another, yet deer browse its leaves. Black chokeberry is on none of the lists we read, and deer browse it in some areas. Deer rarely bother ninebark, yet Maryland’s list, the only one to name it, calls it a deer favorite. Cage witch hazel for two or three years and black chokeberry for two.

Buck rub, the damage taste does not prevent

In fall, bucks rub their antlers on young trunks to strip the velvet during the rut, and the rubbing shreds the bark and can kill a young tree. Taste has nothing to do with it:

“Antler rubbing can be a bigger problem than browsing and can occur even if you do not see browsing.” (University of Minnesota Extension, How to manage deer damage on trees and other plants)

Sweet birch shows it: deer mostly leave it alone, but bucks rub the smooth young trunks in fall. On Kentucky coffeetree, hop hornbeam and mountain camellia, rub, not browse, is the deer damage to guard against. A guard belongs on the trunk from August through December, and the care calendar puts one up each August until the trunk is 3 to 4 inches thick.

Where to start

Choose for the ground first, then for the deer:

• Set your sun and soil in the tree finder, shown here for shade and average soil, and check each match against the tables above.
• For a screen, use its evergreen and screening filters, then the holly note above.
• Cage every young plant for its first two or three years wherever deer are many, whatever its rating, as protecting young trees from animals shows. Only the two doghobbles rarely need a guard.
• Guard the base against rabbits too: spicebush, ninebark and common hoptree want a low cage for their first winters.
• The Shade Understory Pack gathers spicebush, pawpaw and leatherwood for shade. Its other two, witch hazel and American hornbeam, need a cage.

Common questions

Is witch hazel deer resistant?

Rating lists call it resistant or seldom severely damaged, but deer do browse its leaves, so cage it for two or three years. A grown witch hazel of 12 to 20 feet carries most of its crown above a deer’s reach.

Is black chokeberry deer resistant?

No list we read rates it, and deer browse it in some areas, so cage it for its first two years. Red chokeberry is on two resistant lists, yet deer damage it readily.

What native shrubs will deer not eat in shade?

Spicebush, bottlebrush buckeye and mountain doghobble are the shade shrubs deer pass by, and pawpaw is the small tree to go with them. Mountain laurel holds up too, except in a hard winter.

What trees for privacy will deer leave alone?

American holly, devilwood and Walter’s viburnum are evergreens the lists rate resistant. Deer still browse young hollies in hard winters, and arborvitae, among their favorite winter foods, is the screen to skip.

Sources

• Landscape Plants Rated by Deer Resistance: Rutgers Cooperative Extension: the four damage classes and the list’s basis in northern New Jersey, protection for the two worse classes, success tied to local deer numbers and weather, and the ratings in the tables and for arborvitae, yews, rhododendrons, evergreen azaleas, pinxterbloom, witch hazel, red chokeberry, barberry and autumn olive.
• Deer Resistant Native Plants: University of Maryland Extension (Sara Tangren, 2019, updated 2026): the quotation on lists that contradict each other, preferences that follow what else there is to eat, the resistant list with pawpaw, spicebush, American holly and red chokeberry, ninebark and pinxterbloom azalea among deer favorites, invasive shrubs deer leave standing, and buck rub that can kill a young tree.
• How to manage deer damage on trees and other plants: University of Minnesota Extension: damage rising with deer numbers, cold and deep snow and in early spring, browse on twigs under an inch and on new spring growth, plants deer avoid for toxicity, fragrance or texture, rhododendrons, azaleas and nannyberry on its resistant list, antler rubbing in the rut, the quotation, and guards from August through December.
• Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Kalmia latifolia and fifteen other species: NC State Extension: deer ratings for mountain laurel, swamp and mountain doghobble, pawpaw, northern bayberry, Virginia sweetspire, fragrant sumac, Walter’s viburnum, devilwood, sweet birch, American holly and witch hazel, none for black chokeberry, eastern leatherwood or common hoptree, mountain laurel’s toxic foliage browsed in winter and early spring, acetogenins in pawpaw leaves, spicy spicebush leaves, and the leathery leaves of devilwood and holly, holly’s with spiny teeth.
• Odocoileus virginianus, Fire Effects Information System: USDA Forest Service: the 5-foot reach and the preference for young, less fibrous growth, the New York snow estimate and conifer browse above the snow, bayberry and birch among preferred foods in the Northeast, and northern whitecedar among the high-preference winter foods.