Purple Love Grass

Purple Love Grass (Eragrostis spectabilis)

Tumble Grass, Purple Lovegrass

Full sun, dry to very dry, well-drained sandy or gravelly soils — struggles in wet clay, pH 5.5–7.5.

1–2 feet tall, 18–24 inches wide; blooms August–October with a billowing cloud of tiny reddish-purple florets that detach at maturity and tumble with the wind; warm-season clump-former, re-seeds freely in disturbed or bare soils.

Germination Code: A. Seed surface-sown on bare mineral soil in spring or fall; plants establish quickly in dry, poor conditions.

Native region: Statewide in Tennessee, particularly common in dry sandy soils, roadsides, abandoned fields, and limestone glades across Middle Tennessee.

Eragrostis spectabilis is a small, short-lived grass that produces a disproportionately dramatic fall effect — the purplish-red inflorescence cloud can be wider than the plant is tall, catching low autumn light in a way that resembles Muhlenbergia capillaris at roughly half the scale. In the rocky, dry soils along I-65 roadsides and cedar glade margins around Columbia it grows without any assistance; in moist clay border beds it is prone to crown rot and short-lived. The detaching panicles are the plant's seed dispersal mechanism — they tumble and spread, which means volunteer seedlings appear in bare areas nearby. Pairs naturally with Schizachyrium scoparium and Sporobolus heterolepis in dry prairie plantings.