Maryland Native Plants for Meadows: Eragrostis spectabilis – Purple Love Grass
Glorious Grasses
Eragrostis spectabilis – Purple Love Grass
Eragrostis spectabilis, also called purple love grass, is a warm-season bunchgrass with flat, coarse, basal leaves, followed by soft reddish-purple flowers in a loose, open inflorescence in August. Plants generally perform best in sandy or gravelly soils in hot, dry locations in full sun. Purple love grass tolerate infertile, poor soils, and have good resistance to drought. Plants spread by self-seeding and by stems rooting along the ground at the nodes.
Group or mass in borders, or use in a meadow-type planting where it can naturalize. It can be mowed a few times a year and can handle light foot traffic. It will not handle heavy foot traffic. In the winter it will go dormant. This plant is a host plant for the Zabulon Skipper butterfly.
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Common Name: purple lovegrass
Type: Ornamental grass
Native Range: North America
Height: 1.00 to 2.00 feet
Spread: 1.00 to 2.00 feet
Bloom Time: July to August
Bloom Description: Soft reddish-purple
Sun: Full sun
Water: Dry to medium
Maintenance: Low
Suggested Use: Naturalize
Flower: Showy, Good Cut, Good Dried
Tolerate: Drought, Black Walnut, Air Pollution
(Information from Missouri Botanical Garden)
Purple love grass seeds
Purple love grass