Eucomis

The exotic looking South African pineapple lily can add some razzmatazz to the late summer and autumn borders. The normally strap-shaped leaves, are green through to dark purple. Starry flowers erupt from the centre of this foliage, creamy white to pink, topped with a tuft of leafy bracts, reminiscent of a pineapple. They are hardy, but its worth plant 15cm deep, or growing in a deep pot, to protect against colder winters. Unusually they can be propagated by leaf cuttings.

The flowers of Eucomis are produced in a robust, relatively long-lasting spike and so provide a resource for visiting insects. Given that the flowers have a somewhat unpleasant fleshy smell, they are visited mostly by flies, especially bluebottles and flesh-flies. Why would we want to attract those? Well, without nature's army of disposal agents we would be knee-deep in rotting organic matter, and of course these flies are also food for someone else, from birds to dragonflies.