Plant · P-1117

Inland Sea Oats

Chasmanthium latifolium

Inland Sea Oats is one of the few grasses that forms a dense, attractive groundcover under full shade, its arching stems hung with flat, oat-like seed heads that dry well for arrangements. It holds soil on shaded stream banks and slopes where most cover plants fail, spreading by both rhizome and self-sown seed - vigorously enough that a colony needs an occasional edit rather than a barrier. Deer leave it alone, birds take the seed and use the leaves for nesting, and it hosts several butterfly species as a caterpillar food plant rather than as a nectar source. It struggles in continuous full sun, where the foliage turns yellowish, and needs soil that never goes fully dry.