General Landscape Uses:
Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations. Also an accent grass.
Ecological Restoration Notes: It can be used as one of many understory herbs in pine rocklands.
Availability:
Grown by enthusiasts.
Description: Medium herbaceous grass.
Dimensions: About 1-2 feet in height; up to 6 feet in flower. Spreading from underground stems (rhizomes) and forming small patches broader than tall.
Growth Rate: Moderate.
Range:
Endemic to South Florida from the Monroe County Keys north to Palm Beach, Hendry and Lee counties. In the Monroe County Keys, disjunct from Miami-Dade County to the pine rocklands of Big Pine Key.
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: Pinelands and marl prairies.
Soils: Moist to seasonally wet, well-drained to moderately well-drained limestone or sandy soils, without humus.
Nutritional Requirements: Low; it grows in nutrient poor soils.
Salt Water Tolerance: Low; does not tolerate long-term flooding by salt or brackish water.
Salt Wind Tolerance: Low; salt wind may burn the leaves.
Drought Tolerance: High; does not require any supplemental water once established.
Light Requirements: Full sun.
Flower Color: Red and green inflorescence.
Flower Characteristics: Semi-showy inflorescence.
Flowering Season: Summer-fall.
Fruit: Inconspicuous caryopsis.
Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed and division.
References: Miami-Dade County Landscape Manual
(2005).
Comments: Taxonomy: some authors place this into synonomy under S. scoparium.
