Common Name: Grassy-leaved sweet flag

Type: Herbaceous perennial

Family: Acoraceae

Zone: 5 to 8

Height: 0.50 to 1.00 feet

Spread: 0.50 to 1.00 feet

Bloom Time: June to July

Bloom Description: Greenish yellow

Sun: Full sun to part shade

Water: Medium to wet

Maintenance: Low

Suggested Use: Water Plant, Naturalize, Rain Garden

Flower: Showy

Leaf: Colorful, Fragrant

Tolerate: Erosion, Wet Soil

This is a striking variegated cultivar of the Grass-leaf sweet flag that originates from East and Southeast Asia. Acorus gramineus 'Variegatus' forms elegant, mostly about 40, maximally 60 cm tall grass tufts. Its sword-shaped, about 6 mm wide leaves have dark green and green-yellow longitudinal stripes. They are arranged fan-like on a compact creeping rhizome.

The Variegated Sweet Flag is not an aquatic plant in the proper sense and is especially suited for emersed setups. Although it survives several months totally submerged, it should be grown as a swamp plant in shallow water. Grass-leaf sweet flag grows also optimally as a terrestrial plant in moderately moist bottom, e.g. customary potting soil. The rhizome should not be buried but remain above the bottom. The light demand is moderate, the favourable temperatures lie between about 18 and 28 °C.

Acorus gramineus 'Variegatus' is a true eyecatcher in paludariums, terrariums and Wabi-Kusa, also as emergent plant in shallow water of open aquariums.