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Timber Oatgrass

Danthonia intermedia

Timber oatgrass is a small, tight, cool-season bunchgrass of high country — subalpine meadows, forest openings and ridgetops through the western mountains, often the dominant grass above where the sagebrush stops. It stays under two feet in a very compact tuft, and its spikelets are few and large, clustered close against the stem in a narrow head rather than spread into an open panicle. Like the other oatgrasses it also produces hidden self-fertilized seed inside its lower leaf sheaths, a second route to reproduction that pays off in a climate where one cold summer can ruin the open flowers. Old leaf bases persist as a dense fibrous crown that insulates the growing point, part of why it shrugs off late frost and heavy grazing. It is a valued mountain forage grass, palatable and curing well on the stem. It wants a short season, cold winters and sharp drainage, and it does not transplant into a lowland garden.

Family

Poaceae

Type

grass

Lifespan

perennial

Height

1.5–1.5 ft

Spacing

0.5–1 ft apart

Light

part shade

Soil moisture

dry, moist

Soil pH

acidic, neutral, alkaline

Bloom

April, May

Bloom colors

yellow

Wildlife value

songbirds, larval host, mammals

Landscape uses

border, groundcover, container, naturalizing

Native states

AK, AZ, CA, CO, ID, MI, MT, NM, NV, OR, SD, UT, WA, WY