Photo by Jim Jung. All rights reserved.

Sea Oats

Sea Oats is a woodland edge grass. How it came by the name "Sea Oats" is a mystery - at least to me - since I can find no explanation for its common name anywhere in the literature. Look for it in open, upland woods where it usually occurs in small stands displaying its distinctive flat, golden seedheads and on the edges of hill prairies where forest gives way to these distinctive upland communities.

Sea Oats is most conspicuous in the winter months when its seed heads are displayed for all to see - seemingly for months at a time. It must either taste bad, be lacking in flavor or else be a lot of work for little caloric return for hard working seed eaters since the seed heads usually remain untouched until late winter when nearly everything else has been consumed. But for whatever reason it's spared the dangling seeds and the graceful curve of it's stems make this one of the most attractive sights our woods offer in winter.

Photo by Jim Jung. All rights reserved.

For those who want to landscape with native plants, this is a good choice. As grasses go it's very well-behaved, tending to stay where it's put, and highly decorative all winter long. Gather the seed anytime it's ripe (which is anytime after September) and broadcast it on the area you wish it to grow (don't dig up wild clumps!). My experience has been that it has a rather low germination rate so if you want a thick stand gather plenty of seed and be patient! Like all wild plants the seed of Sea Oats hedges it's bets as far as germination goes and will take up to three years for all the seeds to germinate.

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