Description

A warm season bunchgrass with broad blue-green blades that turn deep orange to purple in fall. But the show stopping feature are the mature, large, plume-like, soft, golden-brown seed heads that sway to and fro in an autumn breeze. A mass planting of Indian grass is simply breathtaking, as well as helping wildlife.

Native grasses provide cover and food for songbirds, nesting material/structure for native bees, and are larval host plants.

S. nutans is tolerant of drought, cold, acidity, and heavy clay soils. It does well in poor, dry, infertile soils. and tends to open up and/or flop in moist, rich soils. 

One of the dominant grasses of the tallgrass prairie which once covered large parts of the Midwest. An extensive root system makes this a good grass for erosion control.

Height: 3-5 ft.
Spread: 1-2 ft.
Family: Poaceae
Sun: full sun
Bloom time: September to February
Water: dry to medium
Deer resistant

photo credit: United States EPA