Elliott's Lovegrass

Elliott's Lovegrass is a bunchgrass native across the Southeast, from the Carolinas through Florida to Texas. Eragrostis elliottii forms tidy clumps of fine, arching blades with a silvery blue cast, and from late summer into fall it lifts airy panicles of tiny whitish beige flowers over the foliage as a soft haze, a texture used in masses, meadow plantings, and path edges. Plant it in full sun, or light shade at most, in sandy or loamy soil that drains. It takes ground that stays moist with occasional flooding as well as dry sand, tolerates drought once established, and gets by on poor soil. Clumps reach 1 to 3 feet tall and 1 to 2 feet wide, hardy in USDA zones 8a through 10b. This short lived perennial dies back over winter in the cooler part of its range, hosts the Zabulon skipper, and feeds seed eating birds.