Indian Wood-Oats

Also called River, Flathead, Upland, and Inland Sea Oats, this is an attractive, highly shade-tolerant grass that grows 2 to 4 feet tall and forms drooping oat clusters during the summer. Its foliage and seeds ripen from green to golden-brown in the fall, the seeds persisting into winter. Naturally occurring in stream beds and edges, it tolerates drought and periodic inundation, but grows best in partial shade and moist sands, loams, and clays.