This is one of those plants whose common name – Alkali Sacaton – is only a bit more comprehensible than its Latin name – Sporobolus airoides. The Latin name is a lot more fun to say, however.
We picked up a small fuzzy looking tuft of grass in a four inch pot at Elderberry Farms nursery. The grass, when mature, will have clouds of flowers held above narrow leaves.
We didn’t know much about its culture, only that it’s native to Saramento – and much of the western United States as well. From the name, we could guess that it tolerates alkaline soils, but that’s about it.
It turns out that it tends to indicate near-surface water, so it’s not likely to be extremely drought tolerant. Still, as a native plant it probably will get enough water even from occasional watering. We placed it in a low area of the rain garden. Hopefully it won’t drown during the rainy season, but it’s supposed to be dormant then anyway.
