Tridens flavus
Tridens flavus | Tridens purpletop
Purpletop’s ornamental features are on best display when used en masse in a meadow or large naturalized planting. Emerging slowly at first, along with other other warm season grasses, the collective ornamental effect of Tridens’ dark garnet-colored flowers is visible by mid-summer. Together the flowers create a pretty purple haze that moves with even the slightest breeze. The same effect can be achieved in more structured gardens if several plants are grouped together behind shorter perennials that will camouflage its coarser basal leaves. After the seeds drop, providing food for birds including wild turkeys, the straw-colored panicles continue to stand and sway in the wind all winter. Tridens is salt-tolerant and is commonly seen growing along roadsides.
LOCAL ECOTYPE
4” pot
Tridens flavus | Tridens purpletop
Purpletop’s ornamental features are on best display when used en masse in a meadow or large naturalized planting. Emerging slowly at first, along with other other warm season grasses, the collective ornamental effect of Tridens’ dark garnet-colored flowers is visible by mid-summer. Together the flowers create a pretty purple haze that moves with even the slightest breeze. The same effect can be achieved in more structured gardens if several plants are grouped together behind shorter perennials that will camouflage its coarser basal leaves. After the seeds drop, providing food for birds including wild turkeys, the straw-colored panicles continue to stand and sway in the wind all winter. Tridens is salt-tolerant and is commonly seen growing along roadsides.
LOCAL ECOTYPE
4” pot
Tridens flavus | Tridens purpletop
Purpletop’s ornamental features are on best display when used en masse in a meadow or large naturalized planting. Emerging slowly at first, along with other other warm season grasses, the collective ornamental effect of Tridens’ dark garnet-colored flowers is visible by mid-summer. Together the flowers create a pretty purple haze that moves with even the slightest breeze. The same effect can be achieved in more structured gardens if several plants are grouped together behind shorter perennials that will camouflage its coarser basal leaves. After the seeds drop, providing food for birds including wild turkeys, the straw-colored panicles continue to stand and sway in the wind all winter. Tridens is salt-tolerant and is commonly seen growing along roadsides.
LOCAL ECOTYPE
4” pot
HABIT
Height: 3-4’
Bloom Time: early- to mid-summer
SITE CONDITIONS
Light: full sun, part shade
Soil: medium-wet, average, medium-dry
CULTIVATION TIPS
Establishment: easy, no special requirements
Deer Resistance: high
INTERACTIONS
Other: host plant for broad-wing skipper, seeds are an important food source for birds
CONSERVATION
Native Range: local ecotype
Seed Origin: Fairfield County, CT