The tussock grasses we grow tend to make evergreen, low rounded hummocks of neat foliage, with airy branching heads of small spikelets, providing a sparkling show. Although around 40 species across the world, the cultivated forms are derived from our native hair-grasses, D. cespitosa and D. flexuosa. Generally growing in meadows, woodland glades and mixed forests.
Overwintering tussocks of these grasses, especially the more robust ones like D. cespitosa, are important, sheltered hibernation sites for many beneficial insects such as ladybirds. And being derived from native species, the ones we supply are known to support larval feeing of a wide range of larger moths (including several wainscots, antler moth and dark arches) and some butterflies, including the wall brown, a rapidly declining species in most of southern Britain.