My favorite native grass

Of all the native grasses that have put on a beautiful fall display, this one is still my favorite. The color range and the nice fan shape really makes it stand out. Does anyone recognize it?

The different colors are stunning.

Top of the grass.

Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) or something closely related.

Thanks.

It sure looks like Schizachyrium scoparium to me too and it would be my best guess. But there are three other closely related species that live in Florida, and I don't know how to tell them apart:
Schizachyrium tenerum
Schizachyrium rhizomatum
Schizachyrium littorale

We've nearly two dozen different native grasses and they are the hardest plants to identify. Part of the problem is that they are so few really good photos. When you google them, all you get are photos of seeds and charts. I'd be glad to add some to PlantFiles, but I just can't seem to figure out what I've got!

I realize now that I bought Little Bluestem 'Blaze' and this grass looks nothing like it. The thing that throws me as well with the idea of its being Little Bluestem is that most plant references list Little Bluestem as turning red in the fall. This grass does not turn red. It comes up in the spring a lovely mint green and gets these colorful ribbons on the stalks in the fall.

It tolerates the sand well, but down on the wet corner of our property, it has gotten quite large.

Thanks.

Are you saying what you have pictured here does not look like Blaze Little Bluestem? Because it does look like it to me. Lots of people grow little bluestem up here, and Blaze, and none have red fall color, although orange with reds in and among is common. Fall color with any plant can depend on the individual season and the geographic region, as well as soil types. I wouldn't take the "red fall color" as gospel.

Growing taller where more moisture is available is typical of Little Bluestem too.

I'll take a photo tomorrow of the grass I bought. Perhaps it was mislabeled.

We get very little color change in the trees here, so the grasses may be reflecting that as well.

This is the grass that I bought that had a tag labeled Little Bluestem "Blaze". Can you see now why I'm confused? The two seem nothing similiar. The native grass has a long tubular stalk, multi-colored. This little grass is just a blade. Do you know enough about grasses to have an idea what this one I bought might be?

Of course, all species in that genus (Schizachyrium) will grow in a tufted fashion the first half of the year, until they send up 'tubular' flowering stalks. But any Schizachyrium would certainly have sent up at least a dozen stalks by now. So I must agree that what you bought is not Little bluestem.

Grasses are difficult to tell apart merely from a photo of the whole plant. Species are most often distinguished by exactly such frustrating things that you found when googling - detailed descriptions and photos/drawings of seeds and seed heads. I don't have clue what your purchased grass might be. I think you will need to wait until it flowers/seeds, unless the original nursery where you bought it might know.

The non-flowering stems of Schizachyriums are very different in appearance from the flowering stems. Non-flowering stems are extremely flattened with multiple, relatively large-bladed leaves growing from each stem. These stems are also usually rather short, a few inches tall, with the leaves growing much higher than the stems. Flowering stems are tall (up to 3 to 5 feet tall under good conditions), rounded, and with small-bladed leaves scattered up the stem. It is the leaves on the flowering stems that create the interesting colors you've noticed. Each leaf has a sheath that wraps around the stem for an inch or two below where the leaf comes off the stem. Below that will be a couple of inches of bare stem, followed by another section leaf sheath-wrapped stem, and so on down the stem. The leaves (and their sheaths) are typically a different color than the stems so the stems show these alternating bands of color. Typically, little bluestem will show red leaf sheaths and green stems, but there is quite a bit of variation among different individuals. Some of them, like your top photos, are quite striking. Other species of bluestems ususally show similar color patterns. The flowering stems of Sand Bluestem, for example, are banded with bright yellow stems and sky blue leaves. Indescribably beautiful.

The plant in your last photo looks like little bluestem, it just doesn't have any flowering stems.

That sounds exactly like the native grass. Thanks.

Yes, the plant in the last photo could be little bluestem. I just can't tell, and would have expected some flowering stems by now.