Elymus hystrix (Bottlebrush Grass) Seed Packet

Elymus are cool season grasses, meaning this genus makes active growth during late fall, winter, and much of spring, going dry and dormant in the hotter months of summer. The grass blooms in spring, sending up 2-5 foot tall peculiar seedheads.

The seeds are arranged like the bristles of a bottle brush, with spindly, widely spaced awns 1-2 inches long. The stems and airy heads cure to a hay color, and stay up through the later half of the year, providing vertical, unique texture in a garden or woodland for many months.

Growing in clumps on well-drained soil, bottlebrush grass adapts to a wide range of conditions including heavy clay and gravely soils, but prefers the rich loam of decayed leaf litter. Elymus hystrix are adaptable to grow in part sun and shade, such as under deciduous trees, where few native grasses thrive. Useful for soil stabilization, and is deer resistant. We find dense plantings of the Elymus genus useful for combating colonies of Japanese stiltgrass. 

Bottlebrush grass is a larval host plant for numerous skipper butterflies, including the Northern pearly-eye butterfly (Lethe anthedon), which feeds on several native grasses. The stems and leaves provide nesting material and shelter for insects, mammals and birds. Small mammals consume the seeds.