Ornamental grass
Encyclopedia
Ornamental grasses are grass
es grown as ornamental plant
s. They have become increasingly popular in garden
s in recent years.
These include the sedges (Cyperaceae), rushes (Juncaceae), restios (Restionaceae), and cat-tails (Typhaceae).
All are 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.
, coming up in spring, from their root
s, which have stored large quantities of energy
, and in fall or winter go dormant. Some, notably bamboo
s, are evergreen
, and a few are annuals
. Many are bunch grasses and tussock grasses
, though others form extensive systems of many-branched rhizomes. The bunching types are often called "clump-forming" or "clumping,"distinct from the rhizomatous types, called "running". Sizes vary from a few centimetres up to several metres; the larger bamboos may reach 20 m or more tall. Some ornamental grasses are species that can be grown from seed. Many others are cultivar
s, and must be propagated by vegetative propagation
of an existing plant.
Pampas Grass (Cortaderia selloana) is easily recognizable, with semi-dwarf to very large selections for the landscape. Deer Grass (Muhlenbergia rigens
) and Canyon Prince Wild Blue Rye (Leymus condensatus
) are popular in larger settings, natural landscaping
, and native plant
gardens. There are Miscanthus
grasses whose variegations are horizontal, and appear even on a cloud
y 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 wildland-urban interface
s, care to avoid invasive species
, such as Cortaderia jubata
, Pennisetum setaceum, and Nassella tennuissima
, is responsible horticulture.
Grass
Grasses, or more technically graminoids, are monocotyledonous, usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include the "true grasses", of the Poaceae family, as well as the sedges and the rushes . The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns ...
es grown as ornamental plant
Ornamental plant
Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as house plants, for cut flowers and specimen display...
s. They have become increasingly popular in garden
Garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has...
s in recent years.
Classifications
Along with true grasses (Poaceae), several other families of grass-like plants are typically marketed as ornamental grasses.These include the sedges (Cyperaceae), rushes (Juncaceae), restios (Restionaceae), and cat-tails (Typhaceae).
All are 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 perennialsPerennial plant
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...
, coming up in spring, from their root
Root
In vascular plants, the root is the organ of a plant that typically lies below the surface of the soil. This is not always the case, however, since a root can also be aerial or aerating . Furthermore, a stem normally occurring below ground is not exceptional either...
s, which have stored large quantities of energy
Energy
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
, and in fall or winter go dormant. Some, notably bamboo
Bamboo
Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....
s, are evergreen
Evergreen
In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...
, and a few are annuals
Annual plant
An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in a year or season. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed...
. Many are bunch grasses and tussock grasses
Tussock (grass)
Tussock grasses or bunch grasses are found as native plants in natural ecosystems, as forage in pastures, and as ornamental grasses in gardens....
, though others form extensive systems of many-branched rhizomes. The bunching types are often called "clump-forming" or "clumping,"distinct from the rhizomatous types, called "running". Sizes vary from a few centimetres up to several metres; the larger bamboos may reach 20 m or more tall. Some ornamental grasses are species that can be grown from seed. Many others are cultivar
Cultivar
A cultivar'Cultivar has two meanings as explained under Formal definition. When used in reference to a taxon, the word does not apply to an individual plant but to all those plants sharing the unique characteristics that define the cultivar. is a plant or group of plants selected for desirable...
s, and must be propagated by vegetative propagation
Vegetative reproduction
Vegetative reproduction is a form of asexual reproduction in plants. It is a process by which new individuals arise without production of seeds or spores...
of an existing plant.
Pampas Grass (Cortaderia selloana) is easily recognizable, with semi-dwarf to very large selections for the landscape. Deer Grass (Muhlenbergia rigens
Muhlenbergia rigens
Muhlenbergia rigens, commonly known as Deergrass, is a warm season perennial bunchgrass found in sandy or well drained soils below in elevation in the Southwestern United States and parts of Mexico.-Description:...
) and Canyon Prince Wild Blue Rye (Leymus condensatus
Leymus condensatus
Leymus condensatus, with common name is Giant wildrye and syn. Elymus condensatus, is a wild rye grass native to California and northern Mexico.-Description:...
) are popular in larger settings, natural landscaping
Natural landscaping
.Natural landscaping, also called native gardening, is the use of native plants, including trees, shrubs, groundcover, and grasses which are indigenous to the geographic area of the garden.-Maintenance:...
, and native plant
Native plant
Native plant is a term to describe plants endemic or naturalized to a given area in geologic time.This includes plants that have developed, occur naturally, or existed for many years in an area...
gardens. There are Miscanthus
Miscanthus
Miscanthus is a genus of about 15 species of perennial grasses native to subtropical and tropical regions of Africa and southern Asia, with one species Miscanthus is a genus of about 15 species of perennial grasses native to subtropical and tropical regions of Africa and southern Asia, with one...
grasses whose variegations are horizontal, and appear even on a cloud
Cloud
A cloud is a visible mass of liquid droplets or frozen crystals made of water and/or various chemicals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of a planetary body. They are also known as aerosols. Clouds in Earth's atmosphere are studied in the cloud physics branch of meteorology...
y day
Day
A day is a unit of time, commonly defined as an interval equal to 24 hours. It also can mean that portion of the full day during which a location is illuminated by the light of the sun...
to be stippled with sunshine
Sunlight
Sunlight, in the broad sense, is the total frequency spectrum of electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun. On Earth, sunlight is filtered through the Earth's atmosphere, and solar radiation is obvious as daylight when the Sun is above the horizon.When the direct solar radiation is not blocked...
. Many Miscanthus and Pennisetum
Pennisetum
Pennisetum is a genus of grasses in the family Poaceae, native to tropical and warm temperate regions of the world. They are large annual or perennial grasses growing 1–4 m tall, and are collectively known as the pennisetums...
species flower in mid or late summer, and the seed heads are long lasting, often remaining well into the winter. Some Stipa
Stipa
This article is about a type of grass.For Speech Transmission Index for Public Address Systems, see Speech transmission index.For the Italian aircraft designer, see Luigi 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 wildland-urban interface
Wildland-urban interface
A wildland–urban interface refers to the zone of transition between unoccupied land and human development. Communities that are within of the zone may also be included...
s, care to avoid invasive species
Invasive species
"Invasive species", or invasive exotics, is a nomenclature term and categorization phrase used for flora and fauna, and for specific restoration-preservation processes in native habitats, with several definitions....
, such as Cortaderia jubata
Cortaderia jubata
Cortaderia jubata is a species of grass known by several common names, including Purple pampas grass and Andean pampas grass. It is similar to its more widespread relative, the Pampas Grass C...
, Pennisetum setaceum, and Nassella tennuissima
Nassella
Nassella is a New World genus of about 115 perennial bunchgrasses found from North America through South America. The Latin name nassa means "a basket with a narrow neck." It is now a segregate from the genus Stipa and includes many New World species formerly classified in that genus.Nasella is...
, is responsible horticulture.
Examples
- Festuca californicaFestuca californicaFestuca californica is a species of grass known by the common name California fescue. It is native to the United Mexican States where it is a member of many plant communities, including chaparral. This fescue is a clumping bunch grass perennial without rhizomes.It reaches anywhere from 40 to 120...
(California Fescue) - Festuca idahoensisFestuca idahoensisFestuca idahoensis is a species of grass known by the common names Idaho fescue and blue bunchgrass. It is native to western North America, where it is widespread and common...
- Muhlenbergia rigensMuhlenbergia rigensMuhlenbergia rigens, commonly known as Deergrass, is a warm season perennial bunchgrass found in sandy or well drained soils below in elevation in the Southwestern United States and parts of Mexico.-Description:...
(Deer Grass) - Deschamsia cespitosaTufted Hair-grassDeschampsia cespitosa, commonly known as Tufted Hair-grass or Tussock grass is a perennial tufted plant in the grass family Poaceae...
(Tufted Hair-grass) - Calamagrostis foliosaCalamagrostis foliosaCalamagrostis foliosa is a species of grass known by the common name leafy reedgrass.It is endemic to northern California, where it grows in the forests and scrub on the coastline. This perennial grass produces a tuft of stems 30 to 60 centimeters tall. The leaves are mostly located about the base...
(Coastal or Leafy Reedgrass) - Panicum virgatum
- Melica imperfectaMelica imperfectaMelica imperfecta is a species of grass known by the common name smallflower melic and little California melic.It is native to the Arizona, California, and Nevada in the United States and Baja California in Mexico...
- Agrostis nebulosaAgrostis nebulosaAgrostis nebulosa is an ornamental plant native to Portugal and Spain. This plant is often cultivated for its light delicate heads that are used in dried floristry.-External links:*...
- Leymus condensatusLeymus condensatusLeymus condensatus, with common name is Giant wildrye and syn. Elymus condensatus, is a wild rye grass native to California and northern Mexico.-Description:...
(Canyon Prince Wild Blue Rye) - Helictotrichon sempervirensBlue oat grassHelictotrichon sempervirens, or Blue Oat Grass, is a bunchgrass often used as an ornamental grass in garden design and landscaping. It is in the Poaceae family of true grasses, and native to Central European grasslands....
(Blue Oat grass) - Pennisetum setaceum var. rubrum (Red Fountain Grass)
- Cortaderia selloana (Pampas Grass)
- Miscanthus sinensisMiscanthus sinensisMiscanthus sinensis Miscanthus sinensis Miscanthus sinensis (Chinese silver grass, Eulalia grass, maiden grass, zebra grass, Susuki grass, porcupine grass; syn. Eulalia japonica Trin., Miscanthus sinensis f. glaber Honda, Miscanthus sinensis var. gracillimus Hitchc., Miscanthus sinensis var....
- Carex pansaCarex pansaCarex pansa is a species of sedge known by the common name sand dune sedge. It is native to coast of western North America from British Columbia to California, where it grows in dunes and other sandy habitat. This grasslike sedge produces sharply triangular stems up to about 40 centimeters tall...
(Dune sedge) - Carex pendulaCarex pendulaCarex pendula is a large sedge of the genus Carex. It occurs in woodland, scrubland, hedges and beside streams, preferring damp, heavy clay soils...
(Weeping sedge) - Carex praegracilisCarex praegracilisCarex praegracilis is a species of sedge known by the common names clustered field sedge, field sedge, and expressway sedge.-Distribution:...
(Field sedge) - Carex flaccaCarex flaccaCarex flacca, with common names blue sedge, gray carex, glaucous sedge, or carnation-grass, , is a species of sedge native to parts of Europe and North Africa....
(C. glauca) - Carex spissaCarex spissaCarex spissa is a species of sedge known by the common name San Diego sedge. It is native to the southwestern United States and far northern Mexico, where it grows in wet places, sometimes on serpentine soils. This sedge looks somewhat like a cattail...
(San Diego sedge) - CarexCarexCarex is a genus of plants in the family Cyperaceae, commonly known as sedges. Other members of the Cyperaceae family are also called sedges, however those of genus Carex may be called "true" sedges, and it is the most species-rich genus in the family. The study of Carex is known as...
comans & spp. & many cultivars (Japanese sedges)