Texas Gardening: Texas Native Plant Pictures ( Grasses,Ornamental & Others), 1 by htop

htop wrote:
Indian Grass (Sorghastrum nutans), Poaceae Family, native, blooms September through February,

Indiangrassis an herbaceous perennial bunchgrass and prefers the open prairie to the woodland habitats. Its usual height is 3 to 5 feet and width is 1 to 2 feet. Indian grass is frequently planted alongside highways both as an ornamental and to control erosion. It provides high quality forage for wildlife and livestock and can, if cut before the flower stalks develop, produce excellent hay.

The leaf blades have open sheaths, with the lower sheaths usually hairy and the upper ones smooth. The panicles (flowering heads) are much branched and usually slightly nodding. However, they appear dense due to the many yellowish, golden-brown to reddish spikelets and the silvery hairs on the branches and spikelet stalks. The fertile spikelets end with a usually bent awn If you hold the base of a flowering head, then run your hand upwards, it feels smooth and almost greasy. The flowering heads of most other grasses are rougher to the touch

For more information, see its entry in the PlantFiles:
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/72831/index.html