![]() United States Plant Patent PP#20,948 awarded April 27, 2010. ’Carousel’ is shorter than the species growing 2 to 2.5 ft. ![]() Its flowers are insignificant but the seed heads have showy plumes of white hairs that are ornamental in fall and winter. Its foliage is green to blue green with streaks of pink in summer, a mixture of copper, beige, orange red and mahogany in fall and beige in winter. ‘Carousel’ was chosen for its compact and rounded habit and its upright stems that do not lodge in fall and winter. Schizachyrium scoparium, commonly known as little bluestem or beard grass, is a species of North American prairie grass native to most of the contiguous United States (except California, Nevada, and Oregon) as well as a small area north of the CanadaUS border and northern Mexico. The whole plant turns orange-brown in autumn. Upright, silvery reddish-brown flowers appear in late summer. It was introduced by the Chicagoland Grows® program. scoparium is a densely-tufted, deciduous, perennial grass producing a mound of narrow, arching, blue-green leaves. 'Carousel' was discovered in a garden plot of 200 seedlings that had been grown from open pollinated plants of Schizachyrium scoparium by Donavan Boehm of Boehm’s Garden Center of Rushville, Illinois. Common name is in reference to the lavender-blue color on the stem bases. Genus name comes from the Latin schizein meaning to split and achyron meaning chaff. The seeds are eaten by many species of birds. Flowers are followed by clusters of fluffy, silvery-white seed heads which are attractive and often persist into winter. 4 Season Interest The Blues Little Bluestem Grass. Purplish-bronze flowers appear in 3” long racemes on branched stems rising above the foliage in August. The foliage turns shades of bronze-orange in the fall. It typically matures to 2-4’ (less frequently to 5’) tall, and features upright clumps of slender, flat, linear green leaves (to 1/4“ wide), with each leaf having a tinge of blue at the base. ![]() It was one of the dominant grasses of the vast tallgrass prairie region which once covered rich and fertile soils in many parts of central North America. Schizachyrium scoparium, commonly called little bluestem, is native to prairies, fields, clearings, hills, limestone glades, roadsides, waste areas and open woods from Alberta to Quebec south to Arizona and Florida.
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