Wildflowers on the Potomac

Way back in late April I set aside some time to see some of the nearby native species on a guided walk with the Maryland Native Plant Society (MNPS).  We visited the limestone cliffs along the Potomac river near Sharpsburg, MD.  In this area are a number of plants rare to Maryland, such as northern white cedar (Thuja occidentalis) and bulbet fern (Cystopteris bulbifera).  Our leader that day was Christol Fleming (co-author of Finding Wildflowers in the Washington-Baltimore area), who really knew the area inside and out.

Following are some of the many photos I took that day (roughly in the order seen moving downstream from Snyder's landing):

Coarse foliage of Virginia waterleaf is spotted with white.
Its blooming period is a little later in May.

It's difficult to tell Dutchman's breeches and Squirrel corn (Dicentra cucullaria and  D. canadense)
apart when not in bloom.  Here, side-by-side, you can see that Squirrel corm has a blue-green cast.

These blue cohosh were not in bloom yet, but the layered foliage of this mass
created the effect of a green mist coming down the hillside. 

Up on a limestone cliff  we saw this lyre-leaf arabis (Arabis lyrata) and
 wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) on a rock outcrop.
These two species are well adapted to growing in thin soiled habitats.

Shooting star is a species found in rich calcareous soils
prevalent in this area along the Potomac.

Many Virginia bluebells were in bloom at this time throughout the region.  

Mixed in here are some of the rarer white ones.

In some places the floor of shady woods were covered with the white flowers of meadow rue.
It was formally of the genus Anemonella.

There were two kinds of trillium in bloom at this time. The red trillium (T. erectum),
shown here, and toadshade (T. sessile).

When I think of violets, shades of blue and purple come to mind.
This downy yellow violet, though common, really caught my eye.

There were many more species growing there than I've shown here, some like the hepatica had already bloomed out, and others like the dwarf larkspur and mayapples had not yet popped.

I would like to pay a visit to this area in early summer to see the massive banks of the native smooth hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens) in bloom; however Cristol warns in her book that this area has been overrun with garlic mustard and Japanese honeysuckle at that time of year.

A Busy Spring

It's been awhile since I have taken some time out for blogging.  Besides getting the vegetable garden cleaned up and planted and pulling out garlic mustard, a major distraction this spring has been dealing with 'our' groundhog.

'Our' groundhog climbing a 3" diameter hackberry tree in one of our gardens.  

Last year I tried compromise, but that has been pointless, since we never actually entered into dialog. I tolerated it nipping down the New England aster and black-eyed susan seedlings and the occasional visits to the vegetable garden.  The tipping point was when it ate my newly planted Liatris and Amsonia plants.

My first approach was to use used cat litter and sudsy ammonia to stink up the burrows.  I think this was only slightly annoying and after a short time the ground hog returned.  Right now I am trying a castor oil solution.  This seems to be longer lasting, but I will need to keep up the treatments for a while longer to encourage a permanent move away from my garden.  In addition to using repellents in and around its burrows, I did complete a buried fence around the vegetable garden.  Hopefully this will remove another attraction from the area.

Securing the Garden Perimeter

Now that all sorts of plants are springing back to life any number of outdoor chores are available, some fun and interesting, others, not so much.  One of the major challenges in last year's vegetable garden was near daily incursions by a plump groundhog.  While we can hope that our resident fox does his/her job, I decided to take steps to modify the perimeter fence to make it more difficult to dig under.

Of course I had read that a good garden fence needs to go below the surface to keep out rabbits and groundhogs, I took the easy way out and only buried  few inches of the chicken wire fence under the mulch.  This was actually partially effective the first year, but last year there were several shallow entrances all around.  One article I read, says to dig a trench 2 feet deep and a foot wide and line the bottom and side closest the fence line with chicken wire.That sounds pretty impressive.  I got started, but hand digging a trench that size was beyond my limits of fun.  I backed off a little and when with 12-16" deep and 6" wide.

Here's some photos of my project:

First, dig a trench.  I used a narrow trenching shovel
to make a narrow hole with pretty straight walls.
This trench was only 14" deep and about 6" wide.

Push in the chicken wire and bend it outwards at the bottom
 so that about 6" covers the bottom of the trench.  This way
if the critter tries to go deeper, it will be frustrated.

Fill in the trench and compact the soil.  Connect the buried chicken wire
with the above ground fencing.  I bent about 6" of the above ground portion
outward to create another digging barrier.

Cover the base of the above ground wire with soil and then
 mulch the area between the inner and outer fence.

So with the inner fence secured against the small mammals I'll need to tighten up the outer wire fence to deflect the deer.  

One of the features of my garden is a pollinator border consisting mostly of native plant species. Since many of these plants are vigorous seeders, I have an abundance of seedlings to move from the garden out to the border.  Before I got started with trench digging I took a close look at the plants I would be digging up to determine with they were keepers or 'weeds'.  Here are some photos of the ones I encountered:

This is an over-wintered rosette of Black-eyed Susan.
It can be recognized, in part, by the soft fuzzy leaves

Black-eyed Susans produce a lot of seed and each plant lives only 2-3 years.  To keep a good supply of these in the border I have been transplanting them out from the inner garden.

At first glance the rosette of the weedy English plantain is similar to the Black-eyed Susan.  

This English plantain has lance-shaped, deeply veined leaves

This clump of common yarrow was dug out of the path of the new trench.

Common yarrow, Achellia millefolium, is a cosmopolitan plant, meaning is occurs in similar habitats on a global basis, not just a single region.  Though not always considered a native species it is very good at attracting pollinators and beneficial insects.

These leaves did not break ground until the last week of March.

Wild columbine, Aquilegia canadensis, is another short lived native perennial and is dependent on reseeding for its long term presence in the garden.  The new leaves are a dark, purplish green and can be difficult to spot until they open up some.  Before the leaves develop they could be mistaken for red clover.

There are a  number of native Cardamine sp.
around but they do not resemble this one

Hairy winter cress, Cardamine hirsuta, is a introduced winter annual.  It develops its foliage in late winter or early spring and is in full bloom by April here.





There are many wild garlics, both native and introduced out in the garden.  Since these have a tendency to deter small mammals, I have not been targeting them for removal.  I planted nodding onion, Allium cernuum, in the garden border a year and a half ago.  I have seen several resprouting, some are already about 6 inches tall.

The foliage of nodding onion is a flattened blade.  The
 weedy field garlic, Allium vineale, found in many lawns
 has darker green tubular leaves

Sheep sorrel spreads rapidly by shallow runners.

The last weed I was tossing out was sheep sorrel, Rumex acetosella.  The leaves of this plant can be used as a tart, lemony flavoring in soups and salads.  The plant concentrates oxalic acid giving them a tart flavor; however, it can be toxic in high concentrations.  I should probably consider trying it in a salad, in moderation.

  

Planting Plans for spring 2015

Every year brings another opportunity to grow my native plant collection.  This year I'm focusing on 4 areas:  Clean up and replanting around the swimming pool, clean up and expansion of the meadow, replacing the vinca along the driveway and build up a privacy hedge with the neighbor.  After learning a bit about the current conditions, what is already here and what might be expected to grow here naturally, I've put together a shopping list of natives to get this year.

This moss phlox is pretty happy growing along the pool deck,
A good portion of it is on the concrete slab.
The colors can be intense, so I use mostly one color at a time.

The area around the swimming pool is infested with common evening primrose (Oenothera biennis).  While native, there is just too much of it and it is not that attractive close up.  The soil is mostly a fast draining fill with a moderately high pH (ca. 7.5).  Since this is far from native soil I put a greater focus on what would look good growing in this setting.  Since I had already started using this area for plants native to Texas (my wife's home state) I will be adding two of my favorites, Wine Cups (Callirhoe involucrata) and Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella).   I got some seed on a recent visit to the Wildflower Center.  These will be great for the full sun areas and they tolerate alkaline soils.  The moss phlox could use some bolstering up as well.  I am attempting to remove the English ivy from the enclosure and this phlox seems to be a good candidate to fill back in.

This species of wine cups grows close to the ground, filling gaps around taller plants.
Seed requires a hot water treatment and  30  days cold stratification for germination. 

This is the annual species of Indian blanket, Gaillardia pulchella.

Small's Penstemon is long blooming in shady locations.
The contrasting lavender and white blossoms show up at a distance.

In the shadier areas I will be trying out Greek Valerain (Polemonium reptans aka Jacob's Ladder) and Small's Penstemon (Penstemon smallii).  Despite its common name the valerain is actually a native to the of the US.  This had confused me for a while.  Looks like the name Greek valerain is used for a number of species in the Polemonium genus.  One of them with particularly showy flowers, P. caeruleum, is a European native.  P. reptans grows more like a ground cover

I've ordered some more Indian Pink (Spigelia marilandica) for an area in the pool enclosure with more moisture and organic soils.

This cottonwood seedling appeared in the vegetable garden.
I'll transplant it this spring to a moist part of the new meadow.

I have an area that has been overrun with invasives that I am trying to convert to a meadow.  I cleared half of it last year and hope to finish this spring.  After removing the bad guys I am backfilling with native species.  I realize that I'm making more work for myself by trying to kill off invasivies at the same time as introducing new plantings.  By planting mostly shrubs I think I can more easily manage the area with an annual mowing/whacking of the undesirable plants.  For the right way to convert a weedy area to a meadow or prairie check out this link.

Last year I planted an American plum (Prunus americana) and several elderberries (Sambucus canadensis).  This year I will add some chokecherries (Prunus virginiana) and smooth sumac (Rhus glabra).  I also have a Cottonwood (Populus deltoides) seedling to put on the edge.

The pawpaw blooms in early May,
just before the leaves open up.  

Way in the back I have a large grove of Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) trees.  I've been watching them for 2 years and I have yet to see any fruit.  Since pawpaws produce better with cross-pollination, I will be adding a couple of new individuals to the area,  It is possible that my entire grove is really just one clone.  We'll see if this helps, in a couple of years.

These goldenstar have more than doubled in size after a year in the ground.
I'll get some more to speed up coverage.

In the shady area around the driveway I have been ripping out the vinca and replacing it with shade tolerant natives.  I started with foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) and Heucheras and these are taking hold.  In addition to these I've seen some really good results with Goldenstar (Chrysogonum virginianum, aka Green and Gold) in open shade areas.  These are relatively easy to find in a regular nursery, sometimes marketed with the plants that you can walk on.  Another plant that I've used in dry shade is big-leaf aster (Eurybia macrophylla), It has dense foliage and spreads by rhizomes so it should do a good job competing with the vinca.

This shiny summer foliage pf aromatic sumac turns red and orange in the fall.
We'll see how it performs in a shadier location.

The boundary between our nearest neighbor is defined with a double row of white pines.  At 40+ years old they are now limbed up fairly high and not providing much screening.  We have already put in a juneberry (Amelanchier canadensis), hazelnut (Corylus americana) and Hoptree (Ptelea trilfoliata).  There was also a pawpaw already there, doing a pretty good job despite the drier conditions.  We are looking to add some additional shrubs to fill in this gap and obscure the view.  A local native plant nursery has listed maple-leaf viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium) for sale this year.  I've been told that this is a very difficult shrub to propagate.  It does well in shady woods so I'm looking forward to trying it here.  I should get two since they don't self pollinate.  I am also looking to get some aromatic sumac (Rhus aromatica).  The wild form grows 5-12 feet, just the right size for our area.  I already have some of the 'Gro-low' cultivar.  At about 3 feet it is a great ground cover shrub for many difficult locations.

Now with may list in hand, I can hardly wait until spring!

A Winter Walk

Seeing as we were having a spell of dry weather on New Year's day, I decided to take a walk through the woods to see what was happening.  Now that essentially all the leaves are gone there's a whole other world of things to see.  Instead of focusing on the foliage, trees can be recognized by their bark, branching patterns and leaf buds.  On the ground level the few evergreen grasses and perennials are easy to find.  In particular, the evergreen ferns jumped right out.  Following are some photos of plant features that I came across.

The buds of this 2 year old seedling are
smooth and reddish brown.

The first place I checked out were some tree seedlings that I identified in the vegetable garden last summer.  Since I already knew what they were I could learn about how they look in the off season and store that away for future reference.


The end bud of the Sycamore was smooth and pyramidal.  Kind of like those of ash trees, but the sycamore has a single false-end bud (not centered at the absolute end of the twig), while ashes have a terminal bud flanked by two smaller, opposite buds.   

Another tree that sprouted in the garden was an Eastern Cottonwood, Populus deltoides.  Here the bud end is true and the scales are visible.  To me the most notable feature is that the year-old wood looks like it has shrunken back. leaving the stem somewhat squarish with wings, or ridges along the corners. 

Cottonwoods are often considered rather messy trees.  This spring I will transplant it into a moist area of the meadow that I am clearing of invasives.

The  dry leaves on this American beech
make it easy to spot in the woods.

Moving into the woods a young American Beech caught my eye.  In the winter these can be recognized by their tendency to hold onto their leaves until the spring and by their smooth white bark.

Another tree that has smooth white bark is the American Hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana.  While the beech has a smooth rounded trunk, The hornbeam's trunk is grooved, giving it a muscular or sinewy appearance.  Another way to distinguish these two white-barked trees is their leaf buds.  The buds of the hornbeam are small and dark brown while those of the beech are orangy-brown, long and pointed with many obvious scales.

Another tree with unique bark is the Hackberry.  Though highly variable many trees develop warty knobs and/or ridges that is easy to recognize.  Despite the unappealing name, the hackberry is a valuable wildlife plant, both as a butterfly host species and for producing a crop of 'sugarberries' in the fall for birds and small mammals.

The bark of the Hackberry is hard to miss.

Looking onto the ground plane I found several different evergreen grasses, which remain unknown.  More easily identified were the several species of evergreen ferns.  The most easily ID'ed was the Christmas fern.  This is a common species here growing mostly in shady moist areas.  

Christmas Fern is 'once-cut' and the pinna (leaf)
has a single lobe that makes it look like a boot.

A much smaller fern common here is the Ebony Spleenwort, Asplenium platyneuron.  This one is found in partly sunny location with average moisture.  Mine usually grow to about 6" long and hide in the undergrowth.

The frond of this Evergreen Wood Fern
appears to have been stepped on,
but otherwise looks pretty good.  

While poking around a steeply sloped area I found a fern that was new to me.  Unlike the previous two species this one was much frillier (thrice divided).  I took a bunch of photos and pulled out my fern ID books to come up with a name.  Turns out that I was an Evergreen Wood Fern, Dryopteris intermedia.  This is a common species in the eastern US, but just not that common to my piece of the woods.  It's relatively healthy green appearance in the middle of winter would make it a good addition to a home landscape.

When ID'ing ferns look on the bottom sides of the fronds for the sporangia or sori.
Their shape and location are distinctive for many species.

An unknown fern growing at the base of a tree.

There was one fern that I could not figure out.  It was small (3-4") and had fairly simple leaves (pinna).  It's grow in a gap between roots of a large tree.  I checked the underside of the frond for sporangia, but none to be seen.  I'll need to come back later in the spring to see how it develops.

I would appreciate any ideas on what this might be.

Underside of fronds shows no additional clues.

The last group of plants I checked on were some vines that I planted last summer.  My property is inundated with Japanese honeysuckle.  While I am trying to remove those I am also adding some native ones to fill the voids,  I put in a native Coral Honeysuckle along a fence in the spring.  It quietly grew to a span of over 6'.  Looking forward to seeing some blooms in the spring.  I also added some cultivars, 'Honey Coral' and 'Sulfurea'.  

Can see some flower buds forming on this Coral Honeysuckle.  OOPS, this is actually
Carolina jessamine, Gelsemium sempervirens.  I think it was a tag mix-up in the nursery.
It was covered with yellow blossoms in 2016.

The leaves of this Carolina Jasmine have turned red,
 but are holding on.

On an impulse I also picked up a Carolina Jasmine cultivar called 'Margarita'.  This species is hardy to zone 7, naturally occuring as far north as southeastern Virginia.  However, this 'Margarita' cultivar is good into zone 6.  So far it is holding onto its leaves.  This one may be too small to bloom come February, but I will be happy if it just survives and starts growing when the weather warms.

Swags from Nature

It's late November here in Pleasant Valley, MD and most of the leaves are gone.

For the past couple of years we have been going out to the backyard for our holiday decorations.  It's a great time to get the family out to explore nature in the off-season and get a little creative too.  With an impending pre-Thanksgiving snowstorm we moved up our timetable for collecting materials that could be used in holiday swags.

This year we didn't have a lot of colorful berries to use.  One reason is that I have been diligently cutting or removing the invasives like oriental bittersweet, Japanese barberry, winged euonymus and multiflora rose all with colorful fruits that were overly abundent in past years.  The native 'replacements' I've put in, like winterberry holly, chokeberry and smooth sumac, are still maturing. There are still many different textures and evergreens out there that work well together.

Here's what we gathered from around the property.  While it was easy
 to stuff the cuttings into the bag, getting them out without
damaging the delicate seed heads was pretty tricky.

Rather than starting with a preconceived plan for our decorations we just headed out to take cuttings of anything that looked interesting.  The base for most of our swags is some sort of evergreen, so our first stop is to get some pine branches.  You could also use things like yews, holly and rhododendrons.  The broad leaves of the Rhody offer a real contrast in texture from the other smaller leafed plants.

Types of plant material we harvested were:

• Grasses, provide browns, tans and gold shades, some with interesting seed heads.  Deer tongue grass and little bluestem have a lot of structure to them.  The foxtails are large enough to show up at a distance.
• Seed heads provide detailed texture.  Monardas, agastache, ironweed, asters, goldenrods, cone flowers and members of the mint family are good examples smaller flowers. The dried heads of larger flowers like annual sunflower, milkweeds, hydrangea and tree peony can really stand out.  Pine cones, of course, are classic wreath material.
• Berries and Fruits are a great source of color.  Holly berries are a regular addition to winter decorations.  Berries from various Hypericum, roses and beautyberry are some other possibilities.  We also harvested some crabapples for color; although these may not be a good choice for indoors, since they may begin to rot. As I mentioned I have removed many of the brightly colored invasives, like bittersweet and barberry, from our property.  
• Leaves add a different texture.  This year we were able to get some leafy branches off of the Beech trees.  Some species of oaks also retain leaves that could work well in a swag/wreath.  We also picked up some individual leaves off the ground that had good color in them.  We bundled them in a little sachet, but they could also be used individually.
• Branches can add a unique structure.  We took some from our winterhazel (Corylopsis) which has a zig-zag stem.  Red twig dogwood would be another good choice having both color and texture; however our plants are are a bit too small to cut back yet.
• Vines can be used in several ways.  Bundled together they can form the basis for a wreath.  Singly they can add a free flowing element to the design.  Most of the vines we have available are from invasives like oriental bittersweet and Japanese honeysuckle.  We also have some native river grape and Virginia creeper.  I caution you about harvesting the Virginia creeper since, without leaves, it is difficult to distinguish from poison ivy.

When I first started doing this I only wanted to use native species.  But then I decided that I should take this as another opportunity to remove these plants for the property.  I just need to remember to dispose of those plants properly when we take down the decorations.

We covered the table with some large pieces of paper so that the debris could be bundled up more easily.

The basic swag-building tools are clippers, wire cutters (don't use your pruners for cutting wire) and some flexible wire.  I use copper wire for binding together the larger branches and a thinner steel wire to attach the smaller materials.  What I like about swags is that they are so easy to build.  First bind together the thicker stems at one end with some wire. This creates a bundle of stems that form the base or background.  Then layer other materials on top of the base, tying them in with wire.  More details can be added as desired.  You can also push single stems into the bundle as accents, the tightness of the bundle will usually hold them in place. Finally tie in a loop of wire at the main bundle to use as a hanger.

The swags you create can be simple with just a few different materials, or more elaborate with a variety of shades and textures.  Here are some photos of what we made this year:

Here we started with a bundle of white pine and attached a wide variety
 of seed heads on top, such as virgin's bower (Clematis virginiana),
garden phlox, tree peony, annual sunflower (at top) and various grasses.
  To finish we tied in a wide branch of beech to the back.

This one used the same technique, but fewer materials.
Here there are a variety of grasses including deer tongue grass
and purpletop, on top of the bundle of pine branches.
At the tie off point there is a small bundle of maple leaves and some rose hips

Here, some of the branches point up, others down.
Also a rhododendron branch in the center changes the texture of the swag.   

These next two were constructed by my sister using a lighter touch.

Here she created a circular wreath using Japanese honeysuckle.
Then she tied in a little bundle of of beech leaves, foxtails,
cone flowers on a base of white pine.

Since we had so much interesting material left over my wife suggested putting it into a pot.  This was so easy to put together.  To help things to stand up better I put a 6" short log in the center, then wedged the branches between it and the pot.

Here we put in some of the left overs including some Corylopsis branches,
 a wild mint, spotted beebalm, a wild onion and rhododendron branches.

When the holidays are over most to these can be put into the composting, after removing the wire bindings.  I will separate any fruits or seeds from the invasive plants that were used (oriental bittersweet and multiflora rose, in these examples) and put them in the trash to keep them from spreading.

We had a great time making our natural decorations.  Hope you all have a great holiday season!!

Fall Grasses

We've had a long and relatively mild fall here, that is until this week when overnight temps got to the low 20's.  Many trees held onto their leaves for a long time wait for a real cold snap to trigger leaf drop.  The Fothergilla I planted last season finally turned the fluorescent orange that I was hoping for.

As the temperature dropped the leaves of this
 Fothergilla 'Mt. Airy' changed to this intense orange color.

It got me thinking about my plant selection.  I am always looking out for plants with exciting fall foliage, reds, golds and oranges.  It got me to thinking that these are more effective when contrasted with cooler or muted colors like pale yellow, green or tan.

One class of plants to fill that role are the native grasses. Late or warm season grasses that produce flowers and seeds in the fall are particularly effective.  The low angle of the sun late in the year really plays off the seed stalks, bringing them to life.  I usually leave these stalks standing through the winter to get the most out of them.  I'll clean up what remains in the spring.

Another benefit of these grasses is as a food source for birds and as shelter for many insects and overwintering animals.



Here are some of the grasses I have that are showing off nicely this fall.

I have planted inland sea oats (Chasmanthium latifolium), aka, Northern sea oats and several other names, along a sloping area by the house subject to erosion.  This grass produces a dense fiberous root system that holds the soil well.  While its native habitat is in moist shady locations it will also tolerate dry shade.  It sprouts early in the spring and can spread, both by expanding clumps and seeds, to form dense stands.

The broad leaves of Inland Sea Oats has a bamboo-like appearance.
These copper colored seeds will persist into winter.

The plan is for this Pink Muhly to fill in along this fence.

When they open the flowers look like exploding fireworks.

Another grass that I have added to the property is Pink Muhly Grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris).  This species is native to the eastern US and the gulf coast, but you're not likely to find it naturally in the mountain regions where I am.  The reason I put this in was the light-catching effect of the flower plumes.  At first I was concerned that this effect would not be strong because I didn't have a good angle for the backlighting. But that's not a problem.  The photo above was taken at 2 PM and there is penty of light being scattered by the flowers even though the sun is still rather high in the sky.

I've found this plant to be slow to establish here. Some of that has to do with competition from the surronding plants. Clumps of pink muhly will expand, but it is not an aggressive spreader.  Larger masses should be mown or burned back in late winter to clean up the clump.

This clump of little bluestem is easily identified
by the silvery seed tufts along the stem..

These next three species are growing wild around my home.  Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) is a common native species around here.  It is well suited to dry sunny sites.  It grows well in poor soils.  In excessively rich soils it puts on too much growth and flops over.  As a warm season grass it grows to 2-3 feet by mid-summer.  In the fall it turns golden and produces fuzzy white seeds along the upper stem.  These catch the light and envelop the stem in a silvery glow.  Some selections of little bluestem take on redder shades in the fall.   Small birds feed on the seeds, so I leave these up all winter.

One of the more distinctive grasses I have is Deer-tongue grass (Dichanthelim clandestinum, formerly Panicum clandestinum).  It has relatively broad leaves compared to other grasses.  It is a cool season grass, producing terminal spikelets in early to mid-summer.  Unlike most other cool season grasses, branching and growth continues through the summer.  The name, deer-tongue grass, refers to the shape of the inch-wide leaves, not to any preference for deer to eat it.

Deer-tongue grass persists well into fall, here as a deeply textured mass.

No longer colored, the seeds of Purpletop still catch the light.

Another common pasture grass here is purpletop (Tridens flavus).  When it first blooms in late summer it has a reddish purple color.  When distributed through a field, these blooms cast a purplish haze over the scene.  As the seeds mature the color is lost and the seed stalk becomes a brownish-gold.  As a pasture grass it is very palitable to livestock.  It is also a larval host to a variety of butterflies.

I have not seen purpletop used in any designed plantings, though it does have some interesting features.  The red colored flowers are best appreciated en masse and at a distance.  What might be useful in a smaller garden is to use the 3-4 foot tall flower stalks as a translucent screen between plantings.  Since the leaf blades are concentrated in the lower half of the plant they would not block a view across a planting.  Purpletop grows well on dryish soils in part to full sunlight.