Grasses Ornamental
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Ornamental Grasses Helen Hamilton January 7, 2013 For Gloucester Master Gardeners My front yard in summer •Tall Prairie Grasses •Grass ID •Grasses for Wetlands •“Weeds” •Popular Ornamental Grasses •Others My front yard in fall Meadow Grasses •Switchgrass* •Little Bluestem* •Big Bluestem* •Splitbeard Bluestem •Indian Grass* •Virginia Ryegrass *grasses of the Tallgrass Prairie (1) Switchgrass Panicum virgatum o Major grass of tall grass prairie o Tall, erect, rhizomatous o Open woods, brackish marshes, pastures o Soil stabilization o Wildlife - food, nesting, cover Switchgrass planted in highway median Rt. 50/Rt . 611, Ocean City, MD Switchgrass in winter ‘Dallis Blue’ ‘Shenandoah’ (2) Little Bluestem Schizachyrium scoparium (3) Big Bluestem “Bluejoint Turkeyfoot” Andropogon gerardii (4) Splitbeard Bluestem Andropogon ternarius (5) Virginia Wild Rye Elymus virginicus (6) Indian Grass Sorghastrum nutans How To Identify Grasses And Grass-like Plants GRASSES HAVE JOINTS •Culms (stems) are round and hollow •Leaves have overlapping sheaths •Floret is one flower – 3 stamens, 1 pistil •Flower includes a lemma and a palea •Arranged in a spikelet with glumes at the base Grasses for Wet Areas •Sugarcane Plumegrass •Cordgrass •Gamagrass •Wild Rice (7) Sugarcane Plumegrass Saccharum giganteum (8-10) Cordgrasses Spartina spp. (10) S. patens (9) S. cynosuroides (8) S. alterniflora (11) Gamagrass Tripsacum dactyloides (12) Wild Rice Zizania aquatica Ornamental Grasses •River Oats •Purple Lovegrass •Blue Fescue •Purple Muhly •Ponytail Grass (13) River Oats Chasmanthium latifolium (14) Purple Lovegrass Eragrostis spectabilis Lovegrass = Tumbleweeds! (15) Blue Fescue Festuca glauca (central & southern Europe) www.plants.usda.gov (16) Purple Muhly Muhlenbergia capillaris Portsmouth Island, North Carolina http://vaplantatlas.org Williamsburg Garden Nov Elizabethan Gardens, Manteo, North Carolina Feb (17) Ponytail Grass Mexican Feathergrass Stipa tenuissima Roadside “weeds” •Sweet Vernal Grass •Orchard Grass •Dallis Grass •Purpletop (18) Sweet Vernal Grass Anthoxanthum odoratum (southern Europe) (19) Orchard Grass Dactylis glomerata (Eurasia and Africa) (20) Dallis Grass Paspalum dilatatum (Brazil, Argentina) (21) Purpletop Tridens flavus Grasses for Winter Interest Switchgrass Purple Muhly River Oats Others •Sedges •Soft Rush •Path Rush •Woolgrass Sedges Have Edges Culms (stems) are usually 3-sided Leaves are usually 3-ranked Each flower of a spikelet is in the axil of a single bract, the glume (22) Carex spp. Sedges Rushes Are Round Culms (stems) round, unbranched Leaves are few, wiry and round in cross-section Flowers terminal (23) Soft Rush Juncus effusus (24) Path Rush Juncus tenuis (25) Woolgrass Scirpus cyperinus (Bulrushes) (26) Asian Stiltgrass Microstegium vimineum Non-native (Asia 1919) (27) Golden Bamboo Phyllostachys aurea Non-native (China) (28) Common Reed Phragmites australis Non-native (everywhere!) 3 - Woolgrass 1 - Splitbeard Bluestem 2 - Purple Top Grass 3 1 2 5 -Ponytail Grass 5 4-Umbrella Sedge 4 6 – Purple Lovegrass 6 7 – Dallis Grass 7 9 – River Oats 8 - Switchgrass 8 9 Coming soon! “Wildflowers and Grasses of Virginia’s Coastal Plain” Helen Hamilton and Gustavus Hall John Clayton Chapter Virginia Native Plant Society www.claytonvnps.org.