native lawn substitute?

any suggestions for low growing natives that could function much the same as a trad. lawn area? ie: takes a bit of traffic, perennial, soft.. thanks, amber</p>

yarrow is great, you can mow it. There is a wild strawberry too. </p>

Amber,I just visited Cal-Poly SLO this weekend and they are currently having a test to show a few things that will work other than Yarrow. Which will work in many situations. I Remember the sedge, Carex praegracilis was one that is being tested and I later saw a 'lawn' of it at a home about 15 min from campus and it seems to be doing well with once a month watering and mowing about every 3 or 4 mos. Takes abuse and heat and cold etc. Not as tight and finished as a regular turf but nice and green and relatively soft.David Fross Owner of the wholesale nursery 'Native Sons' knows who is running the test and what the other test subjects for turf replacement are.Good luck-Dan</p>

I once bought a neat little book Easy Lawns on native lawns from CNGA the CA Native Grass Assoc. - cnga.org It was only 10 bucks or so and had a lot of info. I can't say if the info was good since I have yet to do anything to my sorry excuse for a lawn. But it was interesting reading nonetheless. The book covers the whole US but has a California chapter. Good luck.</p>