// SPECIES PROFILE · GRASS · NATIVE
Inland Sea Oats
Chasmanthium latifolium
Inland sea oats is the rare ornamental native grass that thrives in shade — bamboo-like upright stems hung with flat green oat-like seedheads in summer that ripen to bronze-copper and persist through winter, rustling at the lightest breeze.
// QUICK FACTS
- Family
- Poaceae
- Group
- grass
- Native range
- E. & C. US incl. eastern OK woodlands
- USDA hardiness
- Zones 3–8
- Mature size
- 2–4 ft
- Sun
- Part shade to shade
- Water
- Average; tolerates dry shade
- Wildlife value
- Larval host for several satyr butterflies; seeds for finch + sparrow
- Ecological role
- shade-tolerant native grass · ornamental seedheads
