Ophiopogon are grown for their dependable, slender, often prettily coloured foliage, and dainty flowers. Actually, there are around 65 species growing in the wild (from China and Japan, down to Borneo and the Philippines), but only a few are hardy and generally available. Ophiopogon or mondo grass are usually clump-forming perennials, with thin, grass-like foliage through which emerge upright spikes of white or lilac, six-petalled, conical flowers, followed by bluish berries. 

The most often seen species and cultivars are of the mondo grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus) from Japan – and for this reason it often will have cultivars with Japanese names, such as 'Kokuryu', 'Nippon', 'Kansu' and others. All are tufted and slowly colony-forming, with dense, arching grass-like leaves, often glossy. The darkest of these is Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens' with purple-black leaves and purple flowers. The best way to display such black-leaved plants is to grow them again yellow foliage, such as from some Heuchera. Or grow them in fine or chunky (yellow) gravel. Many contemporary designers choose to grow them in in a mulch of recycled glass chips in vivid blue or green, making the foliage really stand out. Avoid growing the leaves against soil, bark or compost, as they will be hardly noticeable.

Ophiopogons were formerly included within the Liriope genus, but botanists eventually decided that the nodding flowers, spreading petals and blue to violet-blue fruits, were sufficient to give them their own genus name.