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Invasive Grass
Cortaderia selloana, C. Jubata · Pampas Grass
Current Invaded Range: Virginia and Tennessee, south to Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas; Oregon, Utah, and California
Native Alternative
Saccharum (Erianthus) giganteum · Sugarcane Plumegrass
Attributes at a Glance
Saccharum giganteum
- Large grass with tall autumn plumes
- Tufts of arching blades
- Russet to burgundy autumn color
Native Habitat and Range
Meadows, open woods, and roadsides from Long Island, New York, south to Florida, west to central Mississippi Valley and Texas
Hardiness Range
Zones 5 to 8
Ornamental Attributes and Uses
This gorgeous clumping grass forms a spreading vase of wide blades that droop at the tips and tall culms (stems) to ten feet tall bearing billowing plumes that open red and dry to silver. Mature clumps bear multiple culms and form massive clumps up to five feet wide. Use sugarcane plumegrass as an accent, screen, deciduous hedge, or in mixed borders. Place clumps of it where they are backlit to accentuate their beauty.
Growing Tips
Plant in moist, loamy or sandy soils in full sun or light shade. In rich soils, the grass grows vigorously, becoming large but maintaining its upright stature. Lean soil keeps clumps a bit smaller. Sugarcane plumegrass is drought tolerant and moderately tolerant of waterlogging.
Related Alternatives
Saccharum alopecuroidium, silver plumegrass, is found on drier sites from New Jersey to Arkansas, south to Florida and Texas. It is similar to sugarcane plumegrass, but the basal foliage is more compact, with few leaves on the flowering scapes, and smaller plumes. Saccharum brevibarbe var. contortum, shortbeard plumegrass, grows on wetter sites. The awns (thin, rigid extensions) in the flower spikes are twisted, creating a dense plume. This plant thrives in wet or moist soils from Virginia to Oklahoma, south to Florida and Texas.
Native Alternative
Muhlenbergia lindheimeri · Lindheimer's Muly Grass
Attributes at a Glance
Muhlenbergia lindheimeri
- Clumping grass with a broad, rounded crown
- Low tufts of arching blades
- Featherlike plumes
- Yellow to tawny autumn color
Native Habitat and Range
Desert canyons and rocky slopes and plateaus in Texas and Mexico
Hardiness Range
Zones 7 to 9
Ornamental Attributes and Uses
This beautiful clumping species has erect to spreading thin, semievergreen blades that droop at the tips, forming a fine-textured vase. Tall culms to five feet bear silky, featherlike plumes that mature from purple-brown to tan. Mature clumps form a dense, rounded crown that measures five feet wide. Use this grass as an accent, screen, or mass planting, or in mixed borders.
Growing Tips
Plant in well-drained, loamy or sandy soils in full sun or light shade. It is drought tolerant but quickly succumbs to waterlogging. This grass is adaptable to cultivation beyond its native range, even in the humid East.
Related Alternative
Muhlenbergia rigens, deer grass, has a similar form and size, with narrow inflorescences borne in profusion above a dense, wiry vase of foliage. It is found at higher elevations from New Mexico to California, into Mexico.
More Native Alternatives
Nolina bigelovii, Bigelow's bear grass—California, Nevada, and Arizona, south into Mexico. For a list of additional native plants, visit www.bbg.org/nativealternatives.
C. Colston Burrell is a garden designer, photographer, naturalist, and award-winning author. He gardens on ten wild acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Charlottesville, Virginia, where he grows natives and the best plants of the global garden. He is principal of Native Landscape Design and Restoration, which specializes in blending nature and culture through artistic design. Cole has written many books on gardening and plants, and he is a contributing editor for Horticulture and writes regularly for Fine Gardening, Landscape Architecture, and American Gardener. He has edited or contributed to more than a dozen Brooklyn Botanic Garden handbooks, including most recently Intimate Gardens (2005), Spring-Blooming Bulbs (2002), and The Sunny Border (2002). In addition to writing, Cole lectures in the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia as well as internationally on topics of design, plants, and ecology, drawing from a lifetime of studying native plants in the wild and in gardens as well as from his experience as a curator at the U.S. National Arboretum and the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.
Photo credits, in order of appearance: Chuck Bargeron and Jerry Pavia