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Gould Deertongue, Witch Grass

Deer Tongue Grass is a perennial cool season grass that usually grows in semi-open areas in damp or sandy woodlands, thickets, or on banks. It is tolerant of low pH soils, high concentrations of aluminum, droughty conditions, and infertile soils. For these reasons, it is used in revegetating acid mine sites. Deer Tongue Grass prefers moist to wet sites and does best in full sun. This grass produces two seed crops; a spring crop in an open panicle and a fall crop that remains mostly enclosed in the leaf sheath.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons | R. A. Nonenmacher

Larval Host for the

Hobomok Skipper, Northern Broken-Dash

3-6'

SIZE

SOIL

Moist, Wet, Clay, Loam, Sand

LIGHT

Full Sun

BENEFITS

Butterfiles, Small Mammals, Songbirds

NOTES

Birds eat the seed and the plant lodges during the winter forming a dense cover for wildlife.

CHARACTERISTICS

Cover for Wildlife

May, June, July, August, September

Grass

This 

flowers in

Deertongue

Dichanthelium clandestinum

DETAIL VIEW

DESCRIPTION

Deer Tongue Grass is a perennial cool season grass that usually grows in semi-open areas in damp or sandy woodlands, thickets, or on banks. It is tolerant of low pH soils, high concentrations of aluminum, droughty conditions, and infertile soils. For these reasons, it is used in revegetating acid mine sites. Deer Tongue Grass prefers moist to wet sites and does best in full sun. This grass produces two seed crops; a spring crop in an open panicle and a fall crop that remains mostly enclosed in the leaf sheath.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons | R. A. Nonenmacher
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