This lovely woodland grass native to eastern North America has exquisite seedheads actually resembling a bottlebrush. It is a cool season grass that begins growth in April. It is perfect for planting under oaks or other deciduous trees that allow some light through to the ground, or it is good for forest edges that receive no more than a half day of direct sun, or good for partial shade in gardens. It can tolerate fairly deep shade, juglone from Black Walnuts, air pollution, and not really eaten by deer or rabbits. It grows well in any well-drained soil and in nature is also found in rich, moist floodplains. The flower-seed stalks are good for flower arranging. It is offered by most native plant nurseries and some mail order nurseries, but not by many conventional nurseries unless very large and diverse. So far, it is not commonly planted or known. It is soft to the touch, fast growing, and easy to work with. It is not a highly ornamental plant, but it sure has great texture. I bought three small plants in pots from a native plant nursery in May of 2018 and planted them in a part-shaded area at my house foundation, and they are growing quickly and blooming in June 2019. During the mild winter of 2019-2020 the plants stayed green low to the ground and began growth in late March to be a nice, good-sized green clump by mid-April. In June 2020 the largest plant is full-sized at about 5 feet high and two feet wide. The three plants have self-sown a good amount in the part-shade area so that several other plants are coming up in 2020, and I transplanted several into pots. There are supposed to be two varieties of this species: E. hystrix hystrix that has lemmas and leaves glabrous (hairless and smooth) or scabrous (rough or gritty) and E. hystrix bigeloviana that has lemmas and leaves appressed-pubescent (soft short hairs close to stem) to striose (stiff, straight hairs).

Reply to this comment