Ornamental grass
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Pennisetum setaceum
)Ornamental grasses are
hardiness zones for their resilience to cold temperatures and aesthetic value throughout fall and winter seasons.[1]
Classifications
Along with
monocotyledons, typically with narrow leaves and parallel veins. Most are herbaceous perennials, though many are evergreen
and some develop woody tissues. They bring striking linear form, texture, color, motion, and sound to the garden, throughout the year.
Habits
|
Almost all ornamental grasses are
vegetative propagation
of an existing plant.
Pampas grass (native plant gardens. There are Miscanthus grasses whose variegations are horizontal, and appear even on a cloudy day to be stippled with sunshine. Many Miscanthus and Pennisetum species flower in mid or late summer, and the seed heads are long lasting, often remaining well into the winter. Some Stipa species flower in the spring, the inflorescence standing almost two metres above the clumps of leaves, and again the seed heads last late into the winter.
When gardening near natural
Pennisetum setaceum, and Nassella tenuissima (syn. Stipa tenuissima), as such is responsible horticulture.[citation needed
]
Examples
True grasses
- Agrostis nebulosa (cloud grass)
- Calamagrostis × acutiflora (feather reed grass) - several cultivars[2]
- Calamagrostis foliosa (coastal or leafy reedgrass)
- Cortaderia selloana (pampas grass) - many cultivars[2]
- Deschampsia cespitosa (tufted hair-grass) - many cultivars[2]
- Festuca arundinacea (tall fescue) - many cultivars[2]
- Festuca californica (California fescue)
- Festuca glauca (blue fescue, grey fescue, ornamental blue fescue grass) - many cultivars[2]
- Festuca idahoensis (Idaho fescue, blue bunchgrass)
- Festuca ovina (sheep's fescue) - many cultivars[2]
- Festuca rubra (creeping fescue grass, red fescue, red fescue grass) - many cultivars[2]
- Helictotrichon sempervirens AGM (blue oat grass) - several cultivars[2]
- Leymus condensatus (giant wildrye, canyon prince, wild blue rye)
- Melica imperfecta (smallflower melic, little California melic)
- Miscanthus sinensis (Chinese silver grass, eulalia, eulaia grass, maiden grass, zebra grass, Susuki grass, porcupine grass) - numerous cultivars, several with AGMs[2]
- Muhlenbergia rigens (deer grass)
- Panicum virgatum (switchgrass)
- Pennisetum alopecuroides (Chinese fountain grass, Chinese pennisetum, fountain grass, swamp foxtail grass) - many cultivars[2]
- Pennisetum setaceum AGM & P. setaceum 'Rubrum' AGM (red fountain grass, African fountain grass, fountain grass, purple fountain grass, ruby grass) - & several other cultivars[2]
- Pennisetum villosum AGM (feathertop)[2]
- Stipa gigantea AGM (golden oats)[2]
- Stipa tenuissima syn. Nassella tenuissima (Mexican feather grass, Texas needle grass)[2]
Sedges
- Carex comans (New Zealand hair sedge) - many cultivars[2]
- Carex elata 'Aurea' AGM (Bowles' golden sedge)[2]
- Carex flacca (syn. C. glauca) (blue sedge, gray carex, glaucous sedge, or carnation-grass)
- Carex oshimensis - Evergold' AGM[2]
- Carex pansa (sand dune sedge)
- Carex pendula (pendulous, hanging, drooping or weeping sedge) - & cultivars[2]
- Carex praegracilis (clustered field sedge, field sedge, expressway sedge)
- Carex siderosticta (creeping broad-leafed sedge) - several cultivars[2]
- Carex spissa (San Diego sedge)
- Carex several other species & cultivars (including Japanese sedges & others)[2]
- Uncinia rubra (red hook sedge)[2]
Environmental impact
Some ornamental grasses have become serious
invasive weeds, usually as garden escapes into natural vegetation areas.[3]
