Purple pampas grass

Cortaderia jubata, commonly known as purple pampas grass or jubata grass, is a large, densely tufted perennial grass in the family Poaceae native to the high Andes of northern South America from Ecuador and Peru to Bolivia and northern Argentina, and naturalised as an aggressive invasive species in coastal California, Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia and parts of southern Europe. Plants form massive clumps 2 to 4 metres tall and 1 to 2 metres across, with arching, sharply-edged leaves 1 to 2 metres long and 1 to 3 centimetres wide that are deep green to bluish-green above and slightly glaucous beneath. The flowering culms tower 2 to 7 metres above the foliage and bear large, dense, plumose panicles 30 to 100 centimetres long that are deep pink to violet-purple when young and fade through silvery-pink to dull cream as the seeds mature. Unlike its close relative C. selloana the species reproduces apomictically from female-only plants, producing seed without pollination, a feature that contributes to its invasive success in disturbed sites and coastal scrub.