Native Plants

Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

Help us grow by giving to the Plant Database Fund or by becoming a member

Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?

Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

Search Smarty Plants

See a list of all Smarty Plants questions

Please forgive us, but Mr. Smarty Plants has been overwhelmed by a flood of mail and must take a break for awhile to catch up. We hope to be accepting new questions again soon. Thank you!

Need help with plant identification, visit the plant identification page.

rate this answer

Not Yet Rated

Wednesday - June 23, 2010

From: Iola, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Shade Tolerant, Turf, Grasses or Grass-like
Title: Will Thunder Turf do well in shade from Iola TX
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

Will the Thunder Turf do well in shady areas or is there a better blend of native grasses that would thrive better?

ANSWER:

Native American Seed has a product page on Thunder Turf, which indicates that it is full sun only. At this point there are no shade-tolerant native grasses that could be considered turf grasses, low-growing and mowable. NAS also has a Shade Friendly Grass Mix composed of:

Tridens flavus (purpletop tridens)

Chasmanthium latifolium (Inland sea oats)

Elymus canadensis (Canada wildrye)

Bouteloua curtipendula (sideoats grama)

Elymus virginicus (Virginia wildrye)

Setaria machrostachya (plains bristlegrass) - pictures and more information

Nassella leucotricha (Texas wintergrass)

These are still not going to be urban lawn grasses. You can follow each link to our page on that grass in our Native Plant Database to learn its growing conditions, expected size and light requirements.

From our Native Plant Image Gallery: