Eragrostis spectabilis (Purple Lovegrass 'Snuggy' )

Purple Lovegrass is a warm-season native perennial bunchgrass. It blooms in late summer or early fall, featuring small, bright purple to pink blooms that resemble billowy purple haze.

As the seeds mature, the panicle takes on a buff color and can detach entirely, tumbling away like a tumbleweed to disperse seeds. Autumn foliage acquires an attractive reddish hue. Its seeds are tiny yet prolific, providing nutritious forage for songbirds and small mammals, which also use the dense foliage for cover. The plant is a larval host for the Zabulon Skipper butterfly.

The species is drought-, salt-, and cold-tolerant, making it an excellent choice for roadsides and difficult sites — once established, it needs little to no additional attention. It prospers in full sun and infertile, dry, sandy, or gravelly soil.

'Snuggy' is a cultivar that is well-suited to borders, mass plantings, containers, and rock gardens. Its compact size compared to the straight species makes it especially versatile in smaller garden spaces or designed landscapes where a tidy, manageable clump is desired.

DISTRIBUTION MAPS

USDA MAP

BONAP MAP

Present in state

Present in county and native

Native to North America, but adventive & escaped in state

Not present in state

Present and rare, native in county

Previously present, now extinct

Questionable presence (cross-hatched, regardless of color)