Sporobolus heterolepis Cloud

Sporobolus heterolepis 'Cloud' is an ornamental grass from the North American central plains. It is a relatively unknown garden plant. The Cloud variety is distinguished from the species by intensely red floral stems. The other highly ornamental aspects of this plant remain the same. However, once autumn arrives, its golden foliage with coppery orange reflections is particularly beautiful with the red floral stems. This architectural perennial forms a clump of changing, silky foliage, green in summer and bronze in winter, swaying in the wind. It flowers at the end of summer in brownish-pink spikes with an intense coriander fragrance. It is an elegant, sun-loving and drought-resistant perennial, adapted to poor, rocky or clayey soils.

Sporobolus heterolepis 'Cloud' belongs to the Poaceae family. It is found from Canada to Texas, through Missouri, where it covers vast sun-drenched areas with its roots buried in the dry lands of the windswept plains. It is slow to establish but durable, forming a clump 30 cm (12in) in all directions. The linear, very fine, very flexible, arched foliage is initially emerald green in spring, turning golden orange in autumn, and finally a light bronze in winter. It flowers in August, in the form of open, graceful, pink flowers marked with brown, which have spicy fragrance that only some people can smell, borne by long red stems that reach 90 cm (35in) high, well above the foliage. It is long-lived and not invasive.

Sporobolus heterolepis Cloud is an ideal ground cover in hot and dry climates, in slightly wild areas of the garden. It is happy in rockeries, on rocky slopes, and in borders. Its effect is enhanced by mass planting, along a pathway, or as a foreground in a flowerbed where you can associate it with Amsonia hubrichtii, another perennial from Arkansas and Oklahoma with golden asparagus-like foliage in autumn, Aster ageratoides Ezo Murasaki, Aster turbinellus with bright mauve to bluish flowers, or the amazing pink hair of Muhlenbergia capillaris. This grass will also grow well in pots.