Native Plants

Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

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Thursday - May 01, 2008

From: Georgetown, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Shade Tolerant
Title: Native grasses to accompany buffalograss in shade
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

What grass goes with buffalo for shade/partial shade?

ANSWER:

To answer your question, we went first to our Recommended Species section, selected Central Texas, and then further refined our selections by asking for grass or grass-like plants, perennial in duration, and 2 to 6 hours of sun a day. This gave us a list of 10 possibilities, from which we chose 4 that we thought would give you the most interesting contrast with Bouteloua dactyloides (buffalograss) in terms of texture, height, etc.

Andropogon gerardii (big bluestem)

Bouteloua curtipendula (sideoats grama)

Schizachyrium scoparium (little bluestem)

Sorghastrum nutans (Indiangrass)

Andropogon gerardii

Bouteloua curtipendula

Schizachyrium scoparium