Groundcover is a plant used for the purpose of growing over an area of ground to hide it or to protect it from erosion or drought. In an ecosystem, the ground cover is the layer of vegetation below the shrub layer.
Strictly speaking, the most widespread groundcover are grasses of various types. In gardening terms, however, the term groundcover refers to non-grass plants that are used in place of grasses.
Four general types of plants are commonly used as groundcovers:
