Pennisetum alopecuroides
Fountain Grass
The fountain grass ( Pennisetum alopecuroides ), also called Spring bristle grass or Australian fountain grass, is a species in the family of grasses ( Poaceae ).
Description
The fountain grass is a perennial, growing in dense clumps herbaceous plant. The culms reach stature heights between 30 and 120 centimeters. The leaf sheaths are parchment-like, keeled and scaly at the stem base. The medium to dark green leaves measure in length between 10 and 80, in width from 0.3 to 1 centimeter. In the autumn, at the ends occasionally overhanging leaves turn golden yellow.
The eponymous, 6 to 30 centimeters long inflorescences are pseudo-spikes, in which the partial inflorescences ( spikelets ) are crowded. They are of a yellow-green to dark violet color and remember in their bristly - feathered form to Lampenputzer, a type of brush. You are at the ends of the upright to over curved blades. The spikelets are two flowered with a basal sterile and an upper fertile single flower. The flowering and fruiting time is between summer and autumn.
Dissemination
The fountain grass is a species that is native to the region from East Asia to Australia. It grows there in fresh meadows. Since the species is hardy, the fountain grass is offered in garden retailers since the second half of the 20th century. As a location it prefers sunny and warm spots and moderately dry to moist soils. Very dry, compacted or sandy soils can not tolerate the plant.
Care
The plant must be watered regularly in the bucket, because the bales must never dry out. Fertilizers are from May to August in 14 daily rhythm. The fountain grass can overwinter in the bucket vessel unless it is covered during the frost period with spruce branches. Only in the spring you cut back the bloomed ears.
Propagation
Propagation is by division in spring.
Varieties
In the garden retailer also bred varieties are offered now. A selection:
- The variety ' Hameln ' is played with a blade length of about 50 centimeters, slightly smaller than the wild type. You already blooms in early summer and wearing white greenish tinted ears.
- The cultivar ' Moudry ' remains low. Its leaves are of lush green color. The panicles are purple to black.
Detail view of panicle
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