A fine-bladed rush-like grass with shiny gold and green striped, 1/8" to 1/4" wide leaves 12" to 18" long. Evergreen in southern zones. Non-invasive rhizome grass. It requires consistently moist soil (suitable for bogs and water gardens), do not let it dry out between waterings.
Beautiful foliage, low maintenance. Foliage is sweetly fragrant. Numerous sedge-like spikes of tiny, densely-packed, yellow flowers appear in late spring to early summer. Flowers give way to tiny reddish fleshy berries.
Great for containers, edging or as a groundcover. Often used for water gardens, along streams or ponds or in moist open woodland gardens. Also effective in rock gardens or border fronts or as small landscape accents as long as the soil moisture requirements can be met. Excellent for erosion control along the banks of streams and ponds. Slow to moderate growth rate. Occasional foot traffic is tolerated. Mature height 10-16", spread 6-12", spacing 8-12".
Acorus is a genus of monocot flowering plants. This genus was once placed within the family Araceae (aroids), but more recent phylogenies place it in its own family Acoraceae and order Acorales, of which it is the sole genus of the oldest surviving line of monocots. The exact relationship of Acorus to other monocots, however, is still debated by scientitst. Some studies indicate that it is placed in a lineage (the order Alismatales), that also includes aroids (Araceae), Tofieldiaceae, and several families of aquatic monocots (e.g., Alismataceae, Posidoniaceae). Common names include Calamus and Sweet Flag.
The name 'acorus' is derived from the Greek word 'acoron', a name used by Dioscorides, which in turn was derived from 'coreon', meaning 'pupil', because it was used in herbal medicine as a treatment for inflammation of the eye.
The genus is native to North America and northern and eastern Asia, and naturalised in southern Asia and Europe from ancient cultivation. The known wild populations are diploid except for some tetraploids in eastern Asia, while the cultivated plants are sterile triploids, probably of hybrid origin between the diploid and tetraploid forms.
These grasslike evergreen plants are hemicryptophytes, (i.e. perennial plants of which the overwintering buds are at the soil surface) or geophytes (i.e. the overwintering buds are found underground, usually attached to a bulb, corm, tuber, etc.). Their natural habitat is at the waterside or close to marshes, often found with reedbeds.
The inconspicuous flowers are arranged on a lateral spadix (a thickened, fleshy axis). Unlike aroids, there is no spathe (large bract, enclosing the spadix). The spadix is 4-10 cm long and is enclosed by the foliage. The bract can be ten times longer than the spadix. The leaves are linear with entire margin.
The parallel-veined leaves of some species contain ethereal oils that give a sweet scent when dried. Fine-cut leaves used to be strewn across the floor in the Middle Ages, both for the scent, and for presumed efficacy against pests.
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Zones: 5-10 $136.08 for 1 pack of 24 plants ($5.67 per plant)10-49 packs - $128.88 per pack ($5.37 per plant)
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