Wildflower Wednesday: Chasmanthium latifolium, A Year Round Beauty

I love native grasses and there aren't nearly enough in my garden. Shallow soil and shady conditions limit them at Clay and Limestone, but, Chasmanthium latifolium (River Oats) is deliriously happy here and it makes a gorgeous big impression....And I do mean a big impression.

I think it's important to tell the truth about plants I showcase and the truth is that while I love River Oats I need to issue a word of caution--This grass spreads through rhizomes and can be aggressive. It will also reseed itself. In fact it has seeded itself vigorously around my sunnier border and taken over spots once inhabited by other sweet native wildflowers! I don't blame the plant, that's its nature. I hold myself completely responsible that it has run roughshod over other plants.  

The first few years in the garden

When I was young and eager to have a wildlife friendly garden I chose River Oats because it had year round beauty and good wildlife value. It was easy to grow and tolerant of many different light and soil conditions. I loved that it was a larval host plant for butterflies as well as a food source for small mammals and birds. Later on I learned that it provided shelter for small mammals and was an important plant for lightening bugs.*

It was in the ground and well established when a gardening friend visited and said this to me when she noticed the large clump of river oats: "Oh my, why did you plant that?"  She knew what many of us learn from experience, that river oats can be a bit thuggish in some gardens. That's what I found out...Each and everyone of those spikelets can make a new plant in moist soil. It can in dry soil, too!  

But let's talk about its wonderful characteristics!  

River oats is a cool season clumping grass that emerges in spring before most native grasses. The bright green arching bamboo like foliage is so welcome after a brown winter.

April green leaves with Phlox pilosa

It's especially lovely in early spring as it mingles with early spring wildflowers.

  

Leander Bruce photo

 The flat nodding green seed heads that resemble oats emerge with the foliage. The spike like flower heads sway gently in the slightest breeze making quite a statement in a spring garden.

It always strikes me as too soon when the flowers ripen into seeds, but that's to be expected with cool season grasses. Most cool season grasses are bunch grasses that grow actively in cool weather and set seed by early summer. 

And just look how lovely the yellow gold seedheads look with Physostegia virginiana. How ironic or maybe appropriate that two of the most disobedient plants in my garden dance so well together!

 

Here are two of my favorite fall photos from the archives.

It seeded itself among the witch hazels, Hydrangea arborescens and a long gone Japanese Maple tree. Below it's mixing well with a fall blooming aster.

a lovely couple 

 Full on winter finds them still beautiful.

Yellowing up on its way to bronze winter color

Since I garden for wildlife, I don't clean up my garden in winter. This means that I let the River oats and the stems of wildflowers stand all winter. This allows insects that over winter in wildflower stems a safe haven and food for birds who forage the seed heads. River oats foliage insulates and protects the plant, adds winter interest and its thick, clumping habit offers essential cover and nesting materials for birds and small mammals.

 If you're really lucky you get to see them in the snow. 

wind pollinated

 Chasmanthium latifolium has more pluses than minuses, but, plant it only if you don't mind a plant that vigorously reseeds or if you have a space in your garden where it can make its big statement! Long time readers know I am a huge fan of colonizing, rough and tumble, take care of themselves native plants and this is definitely one of them.

 I've seen it growing in rich woodlands adjacent to cedar glades where it it co-mingles with Hypericum frondosum, Rhus aromatica and sedges.  It can also be found naturally growing in rich woodlands and  stream beds slopes. It's perfect for stabilizing a stream bank or a slope that's eroding. If you've ever tried struggled to dig a clump to divide or transplant you know that its fibrous and deep root system would hold back the steepest slope!

I will be doing some editing this spring and summer! Wish me luck!xoxogail

 

 

The Particulars

Common Name: Indian Wood Oats, Inland Sea Oats, Northern Sea Oats, River Oats, Wild Oats, Wood-oat 

Type: Ornamental grass 

Family: Poaceae 

Native Range: Eastern United States, northern Mexico 

Zone: 3 to 8 

Height: 2.00 to 5.00 feet 

Spread: 1.00 to 2.50 feet 

Bloom Time: August to September 

Bloom Description: Green 

Sun: Full sun to part shade. Very happy in almost full shade.

Water: Medium to wet 

Maintenance: Low, if planted in the right place!

Suggested Use: Use in naturalized areas, along streams or edges of water gardens. Watch its placement especially in smaller gardens as may spread aggressively by rhizomes and seeds. 

Comments: Showy flowers look like oats. A good cut flower in arrangements. Great winter interest. Highly resistant to deer.

Wildlife value: Larval host plant for Northern Pearly-Eye (Lethe anthedon) caterpillars.  Also a larval host plant to several skipper butterflies. Small mammals and birds are attracted to the seeds. Shelter to small mammals in winter.

*Special note: River oats  are an excellent native grass for creating a firefly-friendly habitat, providing necessary shade, moisture retention, and structural support for mating. These ornamental grasses offer protective cover for larvae and resting spots for adult fireflies, particularly in shady or riparian areas.

 

 

 Welcome to Clay and Limestone's Wildflower Wednesday celebration. On the fourth Wednesday of each month I share information about wildflowers and other native plants. Please join in if you like. You can write a blog post or share your favorite wildflower on social media. Remember, it doesn't matter if they are in bloom or not, and, it doesn't matter if we all share the same plants. It's all about celebrating wildflowers.

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener, Tennessee Naturalist and nature writer in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

Wildflower Wednesday: Dichanthelium clandestinum

When  I walk the rolling hills of this neighborhood I can still see pollinator friendly lawns in front of the 1950s ranch houses and the woodland remnants in the hills that surround the neighborhood. The lawns come alive in March when Claytonia virginica/Spring beauties bloom, followed by Salvia lyrata/Lyre leaf sage, Ruellia humilis/wild petunia, Carex/sedges, Danthonia spicata/poverty oat grass and other native witch grasses. I hope that enough of these lawns will be safe from the developers who are bull dozing the trees and the 1950 suburban ranches to the ground in order to build houses that fill almost the entire lot. They have replaced the pollinator friendly lawns with sod...Gone are the spring beauties, gone are the other pollinator plants and gone are the lightening bugs. Ignorance of the value of saving native, trees, grasses and plants are destroying the habitat of pollinators, birds, insects and mammals. That breaks my heart.

But, in my wild garden you will find many of those plants, along with our Wildflower Wednesday Star, Dichanthelium clandestinum. Deer-tongue grass is one of the witch/panic grasses that I've discovered happily growing  in damp spots in the garden. The unbranched leaves of early spring caught my eye and made identifying it easier.

Photo by Stephanie Brundage

Most of the various panic or witch grasses  are members of the Panicum or Dichanthelium genus. Many are hard to identify by this author. Deer-tongue grass is easily identified by its attractive silver flower heads that shimmer in the slightest breeze. The clasping leaves give the plant a bamboo like appearance and the foliage turns yellow-brown in autumn.  After a hard frost kills the fall stems and leaves, they are replaced by low winter rosettes of basal leaves. The winter rosettes of this plant make a good evergreen groundcover. The root system is rhizomatous and can form colonies. It's attractive and has good wildlife value....so it's a keeper! 

Deer tongue grass occurs in the eastern half of the US and a few states west of the Mississippi River. It prefers damp soil, so look for it in shady moist woodland areas, in moist sandy soil, in ditches, and along roadsides. The genus name comes from the Greek words di, meaning twice, and anth, meaning flowering, referring to plants that may have two flowering periods. The species name means hidden, referring to the tiny flowers that hide within the leaves. (source)

I like it for its looks and wildlife value. According to Illinois Wildflower dozens of birds eat the seeds, at least 5 different skipper larva feed on it and dozens of beetles and other insects feed on the leaves. The site has links to both bird and insect tables if you want more info.  When left standing in winter it provides shelter for birds and small mammals. Is grazed by mammals,  but isn't particularly nutritious for cattle.

The tiny flowers are produced on open, airy clusters called panicles and are nearly impossible to photograph

A Special Note:

 Imagine my surprise to discover that Deertongue actually has a cultivar! Tioga’ deertongue (Dichanthelium clandestinum (L.) Gould) is a cultivar released in 1975 in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment Station, and Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station. (source) Tioga was developed to be used for re-vegetating disturbed areas where site conditions limit the use of other species. It's quite adaptable! It tolerated droughty sites and can tolerate moist soils and streambanks. Apparently it's ability to lodge ( bend over and creates a mat) ) helps this cultivar spread.  The old stems and leaf parts form a layer of mulch that aids in seedling establishment and critter cover.

THE PARTICULARS

Botanical name: Dichanthelium clandestinum

Grass family (Poaceae)

Common name: Deertongue, Deer-tongue Witchgrass, Witch Grass 

Perennial cool season grass 

Inflorescence: A panicle that is typically 3 1/2 to 5 1/2 inches long and 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches broad. 

Leaf: Green 

Size: 24"

Bloom Time: May through Sept

Partial sun/shade (4-6 hrs light daily)

Hardiness Zones: Zone 4 to Zone 9

Range: Eastern US, including Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas. Also eastern Canada

 

Soil Preference: Clay, loam, sand, damp

Pollination: Early flowers are wind pollinated, later ones are self pollinating  

Landscape Uses: Massing, Natural garden, used to re-vegetate disturbed areas with infertile soils  

Comments: It's most attractive in the early spring when the silver flower heads shimmer in the slightest breeze. The clasping leaves give the plant a bamboo like appearance and the foliage turns yellow-brown in autumn. It's attractive and has good wildlife value. In the right conditions this grass can spread aggressively. 

Care: No known diseases or insect pests.

Wildlife Value: Dozens of birds eat the seeds, at least 5 different skipper larva feed on it and dozens of beetles and other insects feed on the leaves. When left standing in winter it provides shelter for birds and small mammals. Is grazed by mammals,  but isn't particularly nutritious for cattle.

PS. My dear readers, you might consider allowing our Wildflower star and other native grasses to grow in your garden or even in your lawn. Think of all the good you'll do for skippers and other critters. Seeds can be found online, so give them a try! xoxogail

 

Welcome to Clay and Limestone's Wildflower Wednesday celebration. WW is about sharing and celebrating wildflowers from all over this great big, beautiful world. Join us on the fourth Wednesday of each month. Remember, it doesn't matter if they are in bloom or not, and, it doesn't matter if we all share the same plants. It's all about celebrating wildflowers. 

 

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener, Tennessee Naturalist and nature writer in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.