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Leersia virginica
Also called White Cutgrass, Virginia Cutgrass, White Grass
Whitegrass is a native perennial grass of eastern North America that grows in wet, partly shaded spots such as streambanks, swamps and floodplain forests. It is grown mainly for wetland and riparian planting, and it needs consistently moist soil.
Leersia virginica, commonly known as whitegrass, white cutgrass, or Virginian cutgrass, is a perennial grass that is native to eastern North America, typically found in partially shaded low-lying wet areas. It has been observed in habitats such as along streambanks, in swamps, and in floodplain forests.
Its blooming period occurs from mid-summer to early fall. Whitegrass can be distinguished from rice cutgrass (Leersia oryzoides) by its smoother leaf sheaths, flowering heads with solitary lower branches in the flowering heads, smaller and more strongly overlapping spikelets, and short rhizomes with overlapping scales. Rice cutgrass, in contrast, has leaf sheaths round enough to cause painful scratches, flowering heads with two or more branches at the lowermost nodes, larger and barely overlapping spikelets, and more elongated rhizomes with the scales usually not overlapping.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Leersia virginica by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
