#GoodReads – Plant Portrait: Bottlebrush grass (Elymus hystrix)

Plant Portrait via In The Zone Gardens

“Looking for ornamental grass to add texture and height in your garden — and boost its benefits to wildlife? You won’t want to pass on bottlebrush grass!

This native species grows up to 150 centimetres tall and forms attractive clumps, with most growth happening in spring and fall when the weather is cool. It’s known for its striking arrangement of bristle-like spikelets (the flowering parts of a grass), on display from June through August. This shape is reminiscent of a bottle brush or the hystrix in this species’ scientific name, from a Greek word meaning porcupine or hedgehog.

Bottlebrush grass is a food source for caterpillar species such as the northern pearly eye butterfly (Enodia anthedon), leaf-mining moths (Elachista species) and the golden borer moth (Papaipema cerina), as well as for white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus), which eat the seeds. Small insects, like aphids and leafhoppers, use clumps of bottlebrush grass as their habitat.

In Canada, bottlebrush grass is native to woodlands and meadows in the Carolinian zone, southern parts of Manitoba and Quebec, and New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Plants and seeds of this species are commercially available for those who’d like to add some to their yard. Look for a spot with loamy soil that is moist to moderately dry. This species grows in sun or shade and is a good choice for planting under trees, in filtered light — one of this region’s only native grasses to thrive in shady spots.”

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