Panicum amarum (Bitter Panicgrass) Unity Grown

Panicum amarum, often called bitter panicgrass, bitter switchgrass, or beachgrass, is a warm season perennial grass typically found in sandy, coastal areas along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico. Growing to typically around three to four feet tall, but occasionally to towering heights of up to eight feet tall, bitter panicgrass is most commonly used as a dune stabilizer in areas experiencing coastal erosion.

Beachgrass has excellent tolerance to dry and infertile sandy soils, salt exposure, and black walnut juglone soils. Bitter panicgrass naturally forms small clumps two to three feet wide, and is well regarded for its ecological benefits, but also its high ornamental value, with blue-green foliage and showy, long-lasting pink blooms in the late summer and fall that eventually turn to seed, providing birds with a multi-season food source. Panicum amarum is an excellent form of erosion control planting, and is very hardy of rather harsh environments while providing food and shelter to a number of birds, small mammals, and butterfly larvae.