Plant in full sun to light shade. Its adaptability to various situations is phenomenal, with the ability to withstand months submerged yet the strong fibrous roots, which grow as deep as 6 to 12 feet, give this plant incredible drought tolerance and also makes it an excellent plant for soil stabilization on a slope and is useful for penetrating and breaking up compacted soils. The shoots arise from underground which also protects new growth, so it is more cold tolerant than one would expect for a tropical plant, tolerating temperatures below 20° F and is useful down into USDA Zone 9. This subterranean growth point also makes the plant able to survive fire and severe herbivore grazing pressure. This amazing plant also tolerates high levels of nitrates, phosphates, heavy metals, and agricultural chemicals and for this reason is used for treating wastewater and rehabilitating polluted sites. In the garden it is useful in the middle or rear of a perennial border, in a large container, as a low screening plant and for slope stabilization.

Chrysopogon zizanioides grows naturally along riverbanks and flood plains in the south Asian tropics and subtropics from northeastern India into Indo-China. Chrysopogon is from the Greek chrysos (golden) and pogon (beard), alluding to the golden hairs on the inflorescence and the specific epithet, often in correctly cited as meaning "river", by the "river" or "riverine", actually has the "oides" suffix meaning "like" and really means like the plant known as Manchurian Wild Rice, which has the botanical name Zizania latifolia. This plant has gone by a lot of names over the years. Linnaeus first described this grass in 1771 in Mantissa Plantarumas Phalaris zizanioides, then was renamed Sorghum zizanioides in 1891 by Carl Ernst Otto Kuntze in Revisio Generum Plantarum 2, then renamed Vetiveria zizanioides in July 1903 by the American botanist George V. Nash in Flora of the Southeastern United States, then renamed Andropogon zizanioidesthen in September 2003 by the German botanist Ignatz Urban in Symbolae Antillanae seu Fundamenta Florae Indiae Occidentalis, then renamed Holcus zizanioides in 1904 by the Argentine botanist Teodoro Juan Vicente Stuckert in Anales del Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires, then renamed Anatherum zizanioides in 1917 by the Agrostologists Albert Spear Hitchcock and Mary Agnes Chase in Contributions from the United States National Herbarium and was finally given what is considered to be this plants currently accepted name, Chrysopogon zizanioides, in 1960 by the French botanist, Guy Edouard Roberty as published in Boissiera 9 (Mémoires des Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques de la Ville de Genève). The name Vetiver is derived from Tamil and reportedly means"root that is dug up" but in western and northern India, it is commonly known as khus or khus-khus.

The Sunshine cultivar, named for Sunshine, Louisiana in 1989 because of the long use of the roots of this clone there being used as an insect repellent was a heritage plant that’s use in the area can be traced back 1860s. It does not produce viable seed and is not rhizomatous, with clumps expanding by short offshoots, so it is not considered invasive and can be easily maintained in place as a edging or even a small hedge. Because the Sunshine cultivar is not invasive it is the clone that the USDA and Natural Resources Conservation Service cite for its noninvasive traits and is the only type they recommended for use in the Pacific Islands Area.

We have grown and sold this plant since 2013 after getting stock plants from the famous Banana Man of La Conchita, Doug Richardson, who told us he got this cultivar from the USDA in 1998. There was long a nice planting of Vetiver that stabilized a large slope on the Santa Barbara City College campus near the corner of Loma Alta Drive and Shoreline Drive. 

This information about Chrysopogon zizanioides 'Sunshine displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.