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