Eragrostis, the lovegrasses, is a genus of fine texture and atmospheric movement. Many species form tufted clumps of narrow leaves, often delicate enough to let light pass through them, while others are more useful in meadows, roadsides, or ecological restorations than in small ornamental beds. Their foliage is usually slender and linear, green to gray-green, sometimes tinted with blue or bronze, and it responds beautifully to wind. Rather than creating a solid mass, the plant often draws a veil of lines through the lower garden.

The flowering panicles are the feature that gives many lovegrasses their grace. They may be open and airy, pinkish, tan, silvery, purple, or straw-colored, rising above the foliage in a haze that catches morning and evening light. Some species, such as purple lovegrass, can make dry ground shimmer in late summer, while others contribute seed and cover to wildlife plantings. The genus does not generally offer bold flowers or broad leaves; its appeal is more subtle, held in the spaces between stems and in the way the inflorescences soften the edge of stone, gravel, or perennial form.

Most ornamental Eragrostis species prefer full sun and well-drained soil, with many showing admirable tolerance of heat, drought, and lean conditions. In rich or wet sites they may lose the tautness that makes them attractive, and in some regions certain species can seed too freely. Used with restraint, they are valuable near echinacea, liatris, sedums, salvias, and low shrubs, where their fine panicles provide a breathing layer between heavier forms. Eragrostis is not a grass for grand statements of bulk; it is a grass for shimmer, dryness, and the soft discipline of open light.

The most successful use of Eragrostis depends on light. Placed where the low sun passes through the panicles, the grass becomes more than a tuft; it becomes a veil that changes by the hour. In winter, leaving the dried inflorescences can preserve a fine tawny structure, though wet snow may flatten them. It is a genus for open compositions, where the spaces around the stems are as important as the stems themselves.