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.