Inland Sea Oats

The shade grass for the river bottom and the shaded drainage edges — a clumping perennial with flat, drooping seed heads that hang like oats and go copper in fall. NPSOT lists it for the Edwards Plateau and Cross Timbers, and it’s the one native grass here that actually wants the shade under the pecans. Easy from seed, and it reseeds hard: the Wildflower Center warns it will mat up a moist loam in a couple of years. That’s what we want on a bare bank. It would be a problem in a bed. Birds take the seed, and three skippers use the leaves.