Part 3 of a video series about creating and designing a residential small-scale grassland as a lawn alternative.
Loading...
Search
Sporobolus heterolepis prairie dropseed
prairie dropseed
Characteristics
Descriptions
Light Requirements
sun
Soil Moisture
dry, moist
Soil Description
average, clay, sand, gravel/rock
Height
2'-3'
Recommended Spacing
20"-30"
Bloom Time
June, July, August, September, October
Bloom Color
pink, brown
Hardiness Zone
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Description
Sporobolus heterolepis is one of the most versatile of all prairie grasses. With its fine-textured foliage and well-rounded, mounding habit, it's a winner ornamentally. The foliage turns attractive golden-copper hues in fall, and the blades maintain their form throughout winter, seemingly unaffected by the weight of snow. Perhaps its most unusual characteristic, among grasses, is its fragrant flowers with an aroma reminiscent of coriander. It can be used as a ground cover, foundation plant, rock garden specimen, or planted en masse to form a border.
Cultivation
Prairie dropseed is easy to grow, low maintenance, and very rewarding. Adapted to a wide range of well drained soils, including thin and rocky, it will also tolerate heavy clay. Best grown in soil with average moisture, mature clumps are quite drought resistant. It should be planted in full sun. Slow to establish, it's not an aggressive species. If planting later in the season, be sure to allow 6 weeks or so for roots to establish before hard freezes begin. Waiting for this long-lived grass to fully mature (3-4 seasons) is well worth the wait. Cut back previous year's foliage in late winter or early spring, before the plant breaks from dormancy.
Recommended Spacing
Space plants 20"-30" on center.
This is a clump-forming grass, and although it grow up to 30 or even 36" inches across at maturity, it will take a few years to do so.
Companion Plants
Prairie dropseed combines well with other full-sun plants that appreciate good drainage. Apt companions with pollinator appeal include Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly milkweed), Coreopsis palmata (stiff tickseed), Liatris scariosa (devil's bite), Pycnanthemum tenuifolium (narrowleaf mountainmint), Rudbeckia fulgida (orange coneflower) varieties and cultivars, and Echinacea purpurea (eastern purple coneflower) and cultivars. To complement prairie dropseed's golden-copper foliage in fall, add late-season asters such as Symphyotrichum oolentangiense (skyblue aster) or Symphyotrichum oblongifolium (aromatic aster) and its cultivars. Add in other prairie grass species like Bouteloua curtipendula (sideoats grama), Bouteloua gracilis (blue grama), and Schizachyrium scoparium (little bluestem) and cultivars.
Additional Notes
The seeds are palatable and nutritious. They are a good food source for many species of birds. Native American plains tribes would grind the seeds to make flower.
Pricing & Availability
Would you like your plants shipped later? You may choose to do so in the shopping cart.
Note: Early spring shipments might include plants that have not yet broken dormancy, or have not been vernalized and will be frost-tender. Please use your best judgment when selecting your preferred ship week.
Note: Early spring shipments might include plants that have not yet broken dormancy, or have not been vernalized and will be frost-tender. Please use your best judgment when selecting your preferred ship week.
Did you know? When plants are available from multiple growers, we list growers closest to your location first.
Why choose plants from the nearest grower? Choosing a the grower closest to you makes it more likely the plants are consistent with your ecoregion and better adapted to your location. In addition, shipping plants shorter distances typically uses fewer resources, something we can all get behind!
Why choose plants from the nearest grower? Choosing a the grower closest to you makes it more likely the plants are consistent with your ecoregion and better adapted to your location. In addition, shipping plants shorter distances typically uses fewer resources, something we can all get behind!
BUY MORE, SAVE MORE
$25 off orders of $500 or more
$50 off orders of $750 or more
$100 off orders of $1,000 or more
$50 off orders of $750 or more
$100 off orders of $1,000 or more
$300 off orders of $2,000 or more
15% off orders of $3,000 or more
15% off orders of $3,000 or more
Maps, Wetland Status & More
MAP OF NATIVE RANGE
Recorded County Distribution: USDA data.
Native To
| AR, CT, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, NC, ND, NE, NY, OH, OK, PA, SD, VA, WI, CO, MT, NM, WY |
Legal Status
| Endangered | CT, KY, MD, NC, PA |
| Threatened | NY, OH |
Wetland Status
| Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain | UPL |
| Eastern Mountains and Piedmont | UPL |
| Great Plains | UPL |
| Midwest | FACU |
| Northcentral and Northeast | FACU |
| Western Mountains, Valleys, and Coast | FACU |
MAP OF WETLAND DELINEATION REGIONS
Interpreting Wetland Status
|
Code |
Status |
Designation |
Comment |
|
OBL |
Obligate Wetland |
Hydrophyte |
Almost always occur in wetlands |
|
FACW |
Facultative Wetland |
Hydrophyte |
Usually occur in wetlands, but may occur in non-wetlands |
|
FAC |
Facultative |
Hydrophyte |
Occur in wetlands and non-wetlands |
|
FACU |
Facultative Upland |
Nonhydrophyte |
Usually occur in non-wetlands, but may occur in wetlands |
|
UPL |
Obligate Upland |
Nonhydrophyte |
Almost never occur in wetlands |
Classification
| Kingdom | Plantae | Plants |
| Subkingdom | Tracheobionta | Vascular plants |
| Superdivision | Spermatophyta | Seed plants |
| Division | Magnoliophyta | Flowering plants |
| Class | Liliopsida | Monocotyledons |
| Subclass | Commelinidae | |
| Order | Cyperales | |
| Family | Poaceae | Grass family |
| Genus | Sporobolus | dropseed |
| Species | Sporobolus heterolepis | prairie dropseed |
ADDITIONAL COMMON NAMES:
northern dropseed
Plant Sizes
Sizes Sizes
Sizes info
Shipping & Planting
SHIPPING INFO:
Shipping is free on all plants orders!
Your plants will ship using each grower’s preferred method: FedEx Ground, UPS Ground, or Spee-Dee Ground (in select midwestern states). Our growers ship orders Monday through Wednesday. The farther your plants need to travel, the earlier in the week they will ship. The goal is to have all plants delivered by the end of the week.
Shipping plugs:
Plugs are shipped in full flats, sometimes also referred to as trays. Multiple flats can be shipped in a single box. The flats are wrapped in netting or craft paper to secure the plants, and spacers are used between flats to keep the plants from being crushed.
When you unpack your plugs, the plants will have been somewhat flattened by the netting or craft paper. They will straighten out within a couple of days. You may also gently “fluff” them a bit to speed up the process. In some cases, your plants might have been cut back before packing, if the grower deemed them to have become too tall for safe packaging. Don’t worry, though, these guys know what they’re doing and would not compromise the health of the plants. They’ll fill back in in no time.
After receiving your plants’ journey in a dark box, it will be important to acclimate them to sunlight again. Over a couple of days, you should gradually move them into their preferred light exposure, and water them as per their requirement.
Although we always recommend putting your plants in the ground as soon as possible, they can stay healthy in the flats for a considerable amount of time. The key is to respect their growing requirements: if the species requires full sun, do not store them in the shade. If it is best adapted to dry soil, do not over-water.
PLANTING INFO:
Planting plugs:
We consider plugs ready to ship when the plants’ roots have filled the entire liner cell and the plants can easily be pulled out. In some cases you will have to go about it gently, wiggling the plant by the crown, and possibly squeezing the bottom of the liner to compress the growing medium and release the roots. Other times, the plants will appear to be root bound. They are not in the traditional sense. The plants are healthy but they have used up all the growing medium available to them. Plugs are at an aggressive stage of growth. As soon as planted the roots will immediately expand into your native soil. They establish faster than plants in larger containers, because they don’t have the luxury of a lot of growing media that can inhibit the roots from venturing outside of their comfort zone.
We are not going to address area preparation because the process can be complex and is always site-specific. However, as a rule, we recommend disturbing the soil as little as possible, and we do not recommend amending the soil. If you chose the right plant for the right conditions they will thrive. Any disturbance and amendments will only encourage weeds to emerge that never had a chance to do so before.
Installing plugs cannot be easier: dig a hole large enough for the roots to fit snugly inside, then water them in to eliminate air gaps. We recommend using a soil knife, sometimes referred to as hori hori, or a drill-adapted auger if it’s a large installation. If you use an auger, you will need a powerful drill. Depending on the size of the project and the type of soil, the process can be beyond what an average drill will bear. Mulching is recommended after installation to help keep weeds down while the plants establish. Be sure to keep it away from the crown of the plants. For large projects, you may want to mulch the area before planting, rather than tiptoeing through it after the fact. As a side note: if you are installing plugs in the fall, you might want to plant them so that the crown is about ¾” lower than the surrounding soil. The winter’s freeze/thaw cycles can push plugs out if the roots did not have enough time to establish and anchor them in.