A native ornamental warm-season bunchgrass in the Poaceae family. It has attractive reddish-purple seed heads that appear in the late summer and persist into fall and are especially impactful when planted en masse. It is a salt-tolerant grass and is often seen growing along roadside ditches. Its seed heads are oily, hence the common name grease grass, and are a food source for birds and mammals.

Purple Top is a perennial warm-season grass that grows 3-5 feet tall and 3 feet wide. It has a rich hue to its foliage as it develops each spring. Shortly after the foliage matures, the flower spikes develop as purple panicles that bloom from August to November. Deer resistance is high.

The plant provides excellent cover year-round.

Host plant for the Common Wood-Nymph, Little Glassywing and Broad-winged Skipper and the Crossline Skipper butterflies.