Coastal Sand Plain, Floodplains and Low Terraces4, Laguna Madre Barrier Island and Coastal Marshes, Lower Rio Grande Alluvial Floodplain, Lower Rio Grande Valley, Mid-Coast Barrier Islands and Coastal Marshes, Northern Humid Gulf Coastal Prairies, Southern Subhumid Gulf Coastal Prairies
Northern Nueces Alluvial Plains, Rio Grande Floodplain and Terraces, Semiarid Edwards Bajada, Texas-Tamaulipan Thornscrub
Floodplains and Low Terraces1, Northern Blackland Prairie, Southern Blackland Prairie
Plant Characteristics
Growth Form
Grass & Sedge
Height
2
to
3
ft.
Spread
0.5
to
1
ft.
Leaf Retention
Deciduous
Lifespan
Perennial
Habitat and Care Requirements
Soil Type(s)
Sand, Loam, Well Drained
Light Requirement
Part Shade, Shade
Water Requirement
Low, Medium
Native Habitat
Grassland
Bloom and Attraction
Bloom Color
White, Green
Bloom Season
Spring, Summer, Fall
Seasonal Interest
Seeds, Forage, Larval Host
Wildlife Benefit
Browsers, Birds, Small Mammals
Maintenance
Likes disturbed soils in shaded to partly shaded areas. Requires less supplemental water in richer soils. Cut back if dies back during drought and during winter dormancy. Propagation: Clump division, Seed.
Comments
Warm season bunchgrass with somewhat flattened stems and sheaths. Dense system of roots may reach down to 8′ in depth. Leaves and stems are purplish to blue green in color. One of the “big four” grasses of the American tallgrass prairie. Nice ornamental bunch grass. Seeds eaten by songbirds, waterfowl, marsh birds, and small mammals. In the wild it occurs in sandy loam soils and usually in the shade of trees or shrubs. Larval Host: most branded skippers and most of the satyrs.