This has to be on of my favorite native plants, but it seems really hard to get a photo that captures how nice it is in person. It has such a nice texture to run your hand through, good fall color, and very pretty delicate panicles. In the fall I see juncos jump up in the air to try and get the seeds. Some say it smells like buttered popcorn or coriander, but I don't notice that too much. Maybe it's more apparent if you have large areas of it. It seems like the neighborhood cats really like it for some reason. They frequently sit on it, or flop on their sides to bunny kick it and shred it with their feet or chew on it. I've seen several different cats do this over the years. It divides well and I've also started some from seed... although it takes several years to get a good sized clump from seed.

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From what I read online, this is a grass that mainly occurs in high-quality prairie remnants. Hard to germinate, so not planted very often in restorations. The small round seeds are eaten by sparrows (not sure if they eat the seeds directly from the flower stems or once they fall to the ground). The dense clump of long slender leaves is distinctive among native grasses.

I'm growing this from seed. Not sure where it'll go in the garden, but it is lovely and it will be a nice addition. Hopefully I'll see some handsome little juncos scratching for the seeds in the winter.

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I ordered one plant in a small pot by mail in 2006 from Prairie Nursery in Westfield, Wisconsin, an excellent source for perennial native plants and a few woody ones. I planted it in my once totally sunny "prairie garden" in the backyard. After several years, the Gray Birches and Serviceberry trees gave forth too much shade for them and other taller plants were competing with it, so I moved it in 2012 to a bed along the west side of my garage where it loves the spot. It has very, thin fine textured blades of emerald-green color. It is very soft to touch and sort of fountain-like in habit. It bears tiny, wispy grass flowers and seedheads. Prairie Nursery mentions that Plains Indians ground the seeds to make a tasty flour. It is not only native to the Midwest, but is also native to the serpentine barrens in the special dry soil with chromium and nickel present in southeast PA and northern MD, and it is found in some other special areas in the East. It is sold by most all native plant nurseries. Only a few larger, diverse conventional nurseries sell it. Many of my fellow horticulturists don't know of these native meadow & prairie grasses, except for Switchgrass.

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