Jumping spiders are drawn to plants that offer them food, shelter, and good hunting grounds, and their preferences are more specific than most people realize. Different species gravitate toward different plants depending on what they need: some seek out nectar-producing wildflowers, others favor the layered architecture of agaves and bromeliads, and at least one species has built its entire lifestyle around acacia trees. The relationship between jumping spiders and plants turns out to be a rich, two-way arrangement that researchers are still mapping out.
Nectar Plants and Extrafloral Nectaries
One of the most direct ways a plant can attract a jumping spider is by producing nectar outside its flowers. Many plants have extrafloral nectaries, small glands on stems, leaves, or petioles that secrete sugary liquid. These nectaries evolved primarily to attract ants and other predatory insects that defend the plant from herbivores, but jumping spiders have figured out the system too. In experiments with the partridge pea (Chamaecrista nictitans), a common North American wildflower with prominent extrafloral nectaries, jumping spiders from the genera Eris and Metaphidippus spent roughly 86% of their time on plants with active nectaries when given a choice between plants with and without nectar.
The spiders weren’t just hanging around for the sugar. They also hunted herbivores, ants, bees, and other spiders on the plants, combining nectar feeding with their normal predatory behavior. Plants that hosted these jumping spiders set significantly more seed than plants without them, suggesting the relationship benefits both sides: the spider gets a snack bar and a hunting platform, and the plant gets a bodyguard.1PubMed. Jumping spiders (Salticidae) enhance the seed production of a plant with extrafloral nectaries
If you’re trying to make your garden more jumping-spider-friendly, plants with extrafloral nectaries are a good bet. Beyond partridge pea, this category includes sunflowers, passionflowers, elderberry, cherry trees, and many legumes. The nectar gives spiders a supplemental food source, especially during periods when insect prey is scarce.
Acacia Trees and the World’s Only Vegetarian Spider
The most dramatic example of a jumping spider’s plant preference is Bagheera kiplingi, a Central American species that lives almost exclusively on acacia trees. Most acacias in the Neotropics have a well-known mutualism with Pseudomyrmex ants: the tree provides the ants with hollow thorns for nesting and produces nutrient-rich structures called Beltian bodies at the tips of its leaves, and in return the ants aggressively defend the tree against anything that tries to eat it. Bagheera kiplingi has learned to dodge the ants and steal the Beltian bodies for itself.2PubMed. Herbivory in a spider through exploitation of an ant-plant mutualism
Stable-isotope analyses confirmed that the main diet of this spider is plant tissue, not insects, making it the first and so far only spider species described as predominantly herbivorous.3Current Biology. Herbivory in a spider through exploitation of an ant–plant mutualism The spider does occasionally eat ant larvae and nectar, but the bulk of its nutrition comes from the Beltian bodies it harvests directly from the acacia leaves. It is host-specific, meaning it is tied to Vachellia (formerly Acacia) species that produce these structures. Without the acacia, Bagheera kiplingi has no food source and no home.
This example is extreme and unusual. No other jumping spider is known to eat plant tissue as a primary diet. But it illustrates how deeply a jumping spider’s ecology can be intertwined with a single plant genus when the right nutritional opportunity exists.
Rosette-Forming Plants as Preferred Architecture
For many jumping spiders, what matters about a plant is not what it produces but how it is built. Several species strongly prefer plants with a rosette growth form, where leaves radiate outward from a central point and overlap in layers. This architecture provides shelter from predators and weather, creates a large surface area for spotting prey from a distance, and offers plenty of crevices for building silk retreats.
In the Madrean Sky Islands of the American Southwest, the jumping spider Paraphidippus basalis shows a clear preference for rosette-forming plants such as Palmer’s agave, mountain yucca, and common sotol. Larger rosettes support more individual spiders, likely because they offer more prey, more hunting perches, and more sheltered nooks.4The Journal of Arachnology. Plant structure specialization in Paraphidippus basalis (Araneae: Salticidae), a jumping spider of the Madrean Sky Islands
A similar preference shows up in a bromeliad-dwelling jumping spider from Brazil, Psecas chapoda. When researchers tested whether this spider could select its preferred microhabitat by sight alone, using photographs of different plant shapes, the spiders consistently chose rosette-shaped plants over other architectures. They further preferred rosettes with narrow, long leaves over those with shorter, broader leaves.5Behavioral Ecology. Using visual cues of microhabitat traits to find home: the case study of a bromeliad-living jumping spider (Salticidae) The finding confirmed that jumping spiders can evaluate plant shape visually and make habitat decisions based on architectural features alone.
For gardeners, this means that agaves, yuccas, aloes, bromeliads, and similar rosette plants are natural magnets for jumping spiders. Even hens-and-chicks (Sempervivum) in a rock garden could serve a similar function on a smaller scale. The layered leaves provide the combination of exposure and concealment that these active hunters seem to prefer.
How Jumping Spiders Find Their Plants
Jumping spiders have the sharpest vision of any spider family, and you might assume they pick plants based on color or shape. The reality is more nuanced. When researchers tested how the magnolia green jumper (Lyssomanes viridis) locates its preferred host plant, the American sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua), they found something surprising: the spider did not prefer green substrates over gray ones, and it did not prefer the star-shaped outline of a sweetgum leaf over a plain green circle of the same area. Instead, it chose substrates based on how much light they transmitted, gravitating toward surfaces whose brightness, seen from below, most closely matched the brightness of real leaves.6PubMed. Disentangling the visual cues used by a jumping spider to locate its microhabitat
When spiders were given a choice between a larger and a smaller leaf-shaped stimulus, they preferred the larger one. But placing a neutral density filter over the larger stimulus, reducing its brightness, abolished the preference and actually pushed spiders toward the smaller, brighter side. So for this species at least, finding a plant to live on is less about recognizing a specific color or leaf shape and more about reading the light environment. The spider appears to seek the ambient illumination conditions it associates with its canopy microhabitat.
Smell plays a role too, and for at least one species it is remarkably specific. The East African jumping spider Evarcha culicivora, famous for preferring blood-fed mosquitoes as prey, is also innately attracted to the volatile chemicals produced by certain plants. Researchers identified three terpenes that the spider can detect and finds attractive, even without any prior experience with the plants that produce them.7PubMed. Mediation of a plant-spider association by specific volatile compounds This was the first experimental demonstration that specific plant chemicals are innately appealing to any spider. The finding upended the assumption that spiders, as predators, would have no reason to evolve sensitivity to plant odors. It appears Evarcha culicivora uses aromatic plants as resting sites where it can also find its preferred mosquito prey, which tend to congregate around the same vegetation.
Plants as Nesting and Retreat Sites
Jumping spiders do not build webs to catch prey, but they are prolific silk users in other ways. They spin draglines, build egg sacs, and construct silk retreats where they sleep, molt, and shelter from rain. The structure of the plant they choose for these retreats matters a great deal.
The iridescent jumping spider Thiania, found in Southeast Asian rainforests, builds its nest by binding a pair of green leaves together with strong silken rivets. The spider then rests, molts, and lays eggs in the narrow space between the bound leaves.8New Zealand Journal of Zoology. Silk utilisation and defensive behaviour of Thiania, an iridescent jumping spider (Araneae: Salticidae) from Malaysia This leaf-binding behavior means the spider needs plants with broad, pliable leaves that can be pulled together and held in place with silk. Stiff, leathery, or very small leaves would not work.
Many temperate jumping spiders use rolled or curled leaves as retreat sites, tucking into dead leaf edges or the space where a leaf curls back on itself. Others build silk tubes under bark or inside flower heads. The common pattern is that the spider needs a plant structure it can modify with silk to create a small enclosed space. Plants with large leaves, loose bark, or dense flower clusters tend to be favored over smooth-stemmed, fine-leaved plants that offer no attachment points.
Leaf Litter and Ground-Level Substrates
Not every jumping spider lives on living plants. Many species spend most of their time on the ground, and for them the relevant “plant” material is leaf litter. Research on Habronattus clypeatus, a North American ground-dwelling jumping spider, found that leaf litter transmits vibratory signals far more effectively than sand or rock. Since male Habronattus spiders produce elaborate vibratory courtship displays through whatever surface they’re standing on, the substrate they choose affects their ability to communicate with potential mates.9Europe PMC. Jumping Spiders (Habronattus clypeatus) Exhibit Substrate Preferences that Partially Maximize Vibration Transmission Efficiency
In behavioral trials, spiders preferred leaf litter and rocks over sand, and they spent more time on leaf litter than on either alternative. The preference partially aligned with what would maximize signal transmission, suggesting that communication needs influence where these spiders choose to spend their time. For anyone managing habitat for ground-active jumping spiders, leaving leaf litter in place rather than raking it clean is one of the simplest things you can do.
Seasonal and Overwintering Plant Preferences
Jumping spider preferences can shift with the seasons. In temperate climates, many species need sheltered overwintering sites, and the plants around them play a role in providing those. Research on three European jumping spider species (Pellenes tripunctatus, P. nigrociliatus, and Attulus penicillatus) that overwinter inside empty snail shells found that the surrounding plant community mattered for where the spiders chose to settle. Females of P. tripunctatus and P. nigrociliatus preferred areas of bare soil with herbs or grasses nearby, where they could suspend snail shells for egg-laying and sheltering the next generation.10PubMed Central. Microhabitat Selection for Overwintering: Overwintering Conditions of Three Jumping Spiders (Pellenes tripunctatus, P. nigrociliatus, and Attulus penicillatus) Living in Terrestrial Shells in the Czech Republic
There were sex-based differences in preference. Females of these species favored sites with a higher proportion of herbs and moss, while males preferred stony surfaces with more exposed soil. The preference for herbaceous cover among females likely relates to the need for stable, humid microclimates during egg development. Leaving patches of low herbs and mossy ground undisturbed through winter can provide overwintering habitat for these and similar species.
Jumping Spiders in Gardens and Greenhouses
If the question behind “what plants do jumping spiders like” is really “how do I attract jumping spiders to my garden,” the practical answer draws from several of the threads above. Plants with extrafloral nectaries provide supplemental food. Rosette-shaped plants and those with broad, overlapping leaves offer shelter and hunting platforms. Aromatic herbs may attract certain species through volatile compounds. And simply leaving leaf litter and structural complexity in place, rather than tidying everything to bare mulch, gives ground-active species a place to live and communicate.
There is also good evidence that jumping spiders can serve as effective pest controllers on garden plants. In a greenhouse experiment, the bold jumping spider (Phidippus clarus) was placed in enclosures with sweet basil plants infested with fourlined plant bugs. After one week, the spiders had significantly reduced the number of plant bugs, and the basil plants in enclosures with spiders were taller than basil exposed to plant bugs without spider protection.11PubMed. The potential of a jumping spider, Phidippus clarus, as a biocontrol agent The spiders did not need a specific plant to be attracted to; they simply needed the plant to host prey and provide enough structure for hunting.
One question gardeners sometimes raise is whether native plants support more jumping spiders than exotic ornamentals. Research comparing native and exotic plant species of the same genus in residential landscapes found that caterpillar abundance, natural enemy community composition, spider biomass, and predation services did not differ between the two treatments.12Biodiversity and Conservation. Effects of native and exotic congeners on diversity of invertebrate natural enemies, available spider biomass, and pest control services in residential landscapes That finding suggests the native-versus-exotic distinction may matter less for spiders than it does for specialist herbivorous insects like caterpillars. For jumping spiders specifically, structural features of the plant, whether it has broad leaves, dense foliage, and nectaries, likely matter more than whether it evolved locally.
Why Plant Preferences Vary So Much Across Species
Jumping spiders are one of the most species-rich families of spiders, with over 6,000 described species worldwide. They inhabit deserts, tropical rainforests, alpine meadows, and suburban windowsills. Given that range, it would be strange if they all preferred the same plants. A species that lives in the canopy of a Central American rainforest has entirely different needs from one that hunts on the rocky slopes of a Czech hillside.
What unites the research is a handful of recurring themes. Jumping spiders choose plants that provide good light conditions for their vision-dependent hunting style. They prefer structures they can modify with silk to create retreats. They are attracted to plants that concentrate prey or produce nectar. And some species have evolved sensory abilities, like innate attraction to specific volatile chemicals, that tie them to particular plant communities. The answer to “what plants do jumping spiders like” is genuinely species-dependent, but if you provide structural complexity, some nectar, and undisturbed leaf litter, you are covering the major bases for most temperate species likely to show up in a garden or balcony.
Plants Jumping Spiders Tend to Avoid
The flip side of knowing what jumping spiders prefer is recognizing what they tend to ignore. Smooth-stemmed plants with very fine, needle-like foliage offer poor footing and few attachment points for silk retreats. Dense, sticky trichomes on some plant surfaces, like those found on certain tomato varieties, can trap small arthropods, and jumping spiders generally steer clear of heavily glandular-haired plants where movement is difficult. Plants treated with broad-spectrum insecticides are obviously inhospitable because they kill the insect prey spiders depend on, but they can also directly harm spiders through contact or residual exposure.
Bare, uniform surfaces also discourage jumping spiders. A lawn mowed to an inch with no bordering structure provides almost nothing for a jumping spider: no prey concentration, no visual cover, no silk anchor points, no microclimate variation. Even adding a single potted agave, a patch of clover with extrafloral nectaries, or a small brush pile at the garden’s edge can transform a sterile space into one that supports these spiders. The recurring lesson from the research is that jumping spiders respond to structural and resource complexity in plant communities more than to any single species of plant.