Natives For Your Neighborhood
Conservation of rare plants, animals, and ecosystems

General Landscape Uses: Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations.

Availability: Grown by a few native plant nurseries.

Description: Medium herbaceous grass.

Dimensions: About 1-2 feet in height; to 4 feet when in flower. About as broad as tall except when in flower.

Growth Rate: Moderate.

Range: Southeastern United States west to Louisiana and south to Palm Beach, Highlands and Hillsborough counties.

 Map of select IRC data from peninsular Florida.

 Map of suggested ZIP codes from South Florida north to southern Brevard, Osceola, Polk, and Pasco counties.

 Map of ZIP codes with habitat recommendations from the Monroe County Keys north to Martin and Charlotte counties.

Habitats: Wet pinelands.

Soils: Wet to moist, seasonally inundated sandy soils, without humus, acid pH.

Nutritional Requirements: Low; it grows in nutrient poor soils.

Salt Water Tolerance: Low; does not tolerate flooding by salt or brackish water.

Salt Wind Tolerance: Low; salt wind may burn the leaves.

Drought Tolerance: Low; requires moist to wet soils and is intolerant of long periods of drought.

Light Requirements: Full sun.

Flower Color: Brownish inflorescence.

Flower Characteristics: Semi-showy inflorescence.

Flowering Season: Spring-summer.

Fruit: Inconspicuous caryopsis.

Wildlife and Ecology: In the Florida Panhandle, it is the larval host plant of arogos skipper (Atrytone arogos) butterflies. Attracts pollinators.