Plant · P-176

Vetiver

Vetiveria zizanioides

Vetiver is a dense clumping grass grown almost entirely for its roots, which run straight down 6 to 13 feet rather than spreading sideways, making a line of it along a contour one of the strongest soil-structure and erosion tools available - it is specifically planted that way to control erosion in cultivated fields. It tolerates an unusually wide range of soil chemistry and can take a spot that floods and then bakes dry, conditions that kill most other plants. Sold as a sterile clone that sets no seed and throws no runners, it stays exactly where it is planted and needs no containment - but a fertile wild type exists and must never be the one purchased. In a hard winter the top growth can die back to the ground, with the plant regrowing from the crown the following spring.