Purple Love Grass

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(Eragrostis spectabilis)

A notably attractive addition to the landscape, this prairie grass provides interest year-round. In late summer, the seed heads create an eye-catching, reddish-purple haze above the foliage, and in autumn, the loose, open mounds of blue-green leaves turn an attractive bronze-red. The seeds turn buff-colored as they mature, and the entire panicle often breaks off and blows around like a tumbleweed, dropping seed as it goes. In home gardens, you can cut the foliage to the ground in early spring before new growth begins.

Purple Love Grass is a warm season, perennial bunchgrass; it grows actively during the summer when soil temperatures are warm. Native to most of Oklahoma, as well as central and eastern U.S., it flourishes in sunny, hot, dry locations with sandy or gravelly soil.

It can be planted as a ground cover, lawn replacement, for green roofs, in rock gardens as well as rain gardens, and for water-wise and low maintenance landscaping. Spreads by rhizomes or by self-seeding. Purple Love Grass is often used by renowned garden designer Piet Oudolf, including in his designs for New York City’s Highline and Chicago’s Lurie Garden.

Purple Love Grass is a host plant for butterflies, and birds forage on the seeds and use the plants for nesting material. This resilient grass can be grown under black walnut trees where other plants struggle. Salt tolerant, deer resistant. Grows 1-2’ tall, space 1-2’ apart. Medium to dry soil, full sun, drought tolerant.