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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-010
Heavy Metal Switchgrass
Panicum virgatum
A columnar, upright ornamental grass grown for stiff, metallic-blue summer foliage that turns gold in fall and fades to tan through winter, when the seed heads and standing stems keep working as habitat. A slow, clump-forming spreader with deep, fibrous roots, it tolerates both dry and occasionally wet ground and needs full sun to hold its upright form - shade or overly rich soil makes it flop open.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 5–9
- Soil
- Sand · Silt · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Dry · Moderate · Moist · Wet
Vertical layer
Herbaceous- Soil pH
- 6–8
- Plant type
- Grass
- Mature height
- 4–5 ft
- Mature spread
- 12–24 in
- Plant spacing
- 3–6 ft
- Root type
- Fibrous-deep
- Spread pattern
- Both
Keep exploring
Similar plants
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Vigna angularis (Willd.) Ohwi & H.Ohashi
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African Eggplant
Solanum aethiopicum
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Agrimony
Agrimonia eupatoria
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Alfalfa
Medicago sativa
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Alsike Clover
Trifolium hybridum
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Amaranth Greens
Amaranthus tricolor
Amaranth greens are one of the few leafy vegetables actually built for peak summer heat rather than one that just tolerates it - sown once…
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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