Schizachyrium scoparium (Little Bluestem) is a native perennial grass that grows in foot-wide clumps from two to four feet tall with blue-green blade-shaped foliage and purple-bronze flowers that turn to fluffy white seed heads in the fall. Little bluestem is a highly adaptable plant, proving tolerant to snow, rain, drought, flood, deer browsing, and a variety of soils including clay and saline conditions, but does best in drier soils.
The 'Standing Ovation' cultivar features deeper blue colors with red tips on the leaf blades, which are wider than those found on straight species plants. In the fall, 'Standing Ovation' takes on deeper hues of red and maroon than the bronze-orange of its parent plant, and these darker colors persist through the fall and winter.