Native Grasses

A perfect native grass for inter-planting with wildflowers! Native west of the Cascades, Roemer’s fescue was once a dominant grass in prairies and ...

  Caterpillar host plant for more than 40 species of butterflies! The name of this sublime native grass, perfectly sums up its appearance. From sho...

One of the most adaptable native grasses for meadow landscaping. This is one of the first grasses we recommend for people trying to incorporate nat...

Possibly THE BEST native turf grass in North America – one that can be left in long and swaying, or closely mowed like a manicured lawn. Native fro...

One of the best grass-substitutes for combining with wildflower plantings. While most sedges have specific associations with wetlands or wet enviro...

A Pacific coast form of creeping red fescue for lush, soft, exuberant wild lawns – and for filling gaps between other plant species. Contrasting sl...

An excellent utilitarian grass for erosion control, wildlife, and agroforestry. With seedheads that can reach 4 to 5 feet in height, blue wild rye ...

Native to most of North America, red fescue is a cool-season perennial, meaning it tends to go dormant in the heat of summer. While there are also ...

A tough, but lush, clumpy grass that can support butterfly caterpillars, grazing mammals, and even function as a lawn grass. Like a number of other...

An iconic associate of vanishing meadows across the west. Despite the common name, California oatgrass is an extremely widespread meadow and savann...

A beautiful blue/green/grey low maintenance turf and ornamental grass. Native to the Pacific Coast (from British Columbia to Mexico), sand fescue i...

Humble toad rush is one of our favorite plants. At only 2 to 6-inches tall, this annual grass-like plant scarcely gets any attention. Yet for us it...

A mounding, tufted, native fine-leaved fescue for wild lawns, septic drain fields, parks, pet enclosures, and more. Western fescue is a widespread ...

A slender, fast-growing annual grass for quick soil cover. Almost true to its name, three week fescue can grow from seed to maturity very quickly!...

As the common name makes clear, this is a rush-like plant that "creeps" or spreads by underground rhizomes. The scientific name is a bit more elega...

A tenacious, architecturally beautiful, and under-appreciated plant with numerous uses. Found almost nationwide, path rush takes is named for its r...

An infinitely more attractive alternative to that non-native dwarf mondo grass (Ophiopogon japanicus) sold in big box nurseries…this beautiful, clu...

This is a resilient and under-appreciated grass for damp spaces and wet meadows.   Spike bentgrass can hold ground against invasive reed canary gr...

The common name of this unusual, low-growing, curly-leaved grass refers to the fact that it grows most favorably on impoverished ground, where few ...

An exceptionally showy grass-like rush, with striking copper-colored ‘pom-pom’ flowers and seedheads. Daggerleaf rush is one of the plants that is...

The essence of coastal vegetation, American dunegrass (called sea lyme in old speak), is a circumpolar perennial grass, occurring both across the N...

How can shallow, muddy, sometimes polluted ground give rise to something as beautiful as this? Woolgrass is a clumping wetland emergent species, a...

Rising from wet soils along the edges of ponds, vernal pools, and slow streams, this most delicate plant threads the water’s surface with fine, gre...

Short Awn Foxtail is a native grass of temporarily watery lands. It is not, as some might mistakenly believe, the non-native weedy meadow foxtail (...