Pampas-grass

Cortaderia selloana is a very large, dioecious, densely tufted evergreen perennial grass of the Poaceae family growing 2-4 m tall, with leaf masses forming clumps 2-3 m across. The leaves are long, narrowly linear, 1-2 m long and 1-2 cm wide, arching outward, bluish-green, with sharply serrate, glass-fibre-edged margins capable of inflicting deep cuts on the unwary, and tapering to a fine drooping tip. Robust erect culms 2-4 m tall emerge from the centre of the tussock and bear at their summits very large, plumose, silky panicles 30-90 cm long and 15-30 cm wide; on female plants these are silvery-white to pinkish and densely woolly, while on male plants they are narrower and less showy. Spikelets are 14-18 mm long with 2-3 florets, the lemmas long-hairy. Native to the pampas of southern South America, the species has been planted as an ornamental worldwide and is invasive in many warm-temperate regions. Flowering occurs in late summer and autumn.