Sand Cordgrass

Sand Cordgrass is a large clumping perennial grass known botanically as Spartina bakeri, native to Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas. Fine, wiry blades arch outward in a fountain shape from a dense base, giving pond edges, borders, and mass plantings year-round texture and movement. Grow it in full sun, though light shade is tolerated, in USDA zones 8b through 11. Clumps stand 3 to 4 feet tall and 3 to 5 feet wide, spaced about 3 feet apart for massing, and they widen by rhizomes over the years. It accepts sand, loam, or clay, takes extended flooding along shorelines and retention ponds, and is highly drought tolerant once established. Salt spray and salty soil are tolerated, but standing brackish water is not. Foliage stays evergreen in mild winters, browning in colder ones, and slender flower spikes dry to tan above the clump.