''Pityopsis graminifolia'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

known by the common names grass-leaved golden-aster and narrowleaf silkgrass. It is native to the southeastern United States, occurring as far north as

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

and

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

.''Pityopsis graminifolia''.
NatureServe.

Description

Despite its common name, the plant is not a

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

. It is a rhizomatous perennial herb growing up to 80 centimeters tall with green or brown stems covered in silvery hairs. The leaves are grasslike, linear to lance-shaped with silvery hairs. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

contains a few to over a hundred

flower heads A pseudanthium (Greek for "false flower"; ) is an inflorescence that resembles a flower. The word is sometimes used for other structures that are neither a true flower nor a true inflorescence. Examples of pseudanthia include flower heads, compos ...

which contain yellow ray and disc florets. This species can be quite variable and some authors divide it into several varieties.''Pityopsis graminifolia''.
Flora of North America. This plant is used as an

ornamental Ornamental may refer to: *Ornamental grass, a type of grass grown as a decoration *Ornamental iron, mild steel that has been formed into decorative shapes, similar to wrought iron work *Ornamental plant, a plant that is grown for its ornamental qua ...

and for vegetating roadsides and other disturbed habitat. It can be used in

xeriscaping Xeriscaping is the process of Garden design, landscaping, or gardening, that reduces or eliminates the need for irrigation. It is promoted in regions that do not have accessible, plentiful, or reliable supplies of fresh water and has gained accep ...

. It can help control

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

. It can reproduce by seed and it can form large colonies by spreading via its rhizomes.''Pityopsis graminifolia''.
USDA NRCS Plant Fact Sheet. It is found in dry or sandy soil and pine barrens. It grows from July to September.

References

External links

USDA Plants Profile for ''Pityopsis graminifolia''
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q7199560, from2=Q5114922 Astereae Plants described in 1803 Flora of the Eastern United States Garden plants of North America Drought-tolerant plants