Pampas Grass - (*Cortaderia selloana)

Native to Argentina. Perennial. C3.

Family. Poaceae (Grass family).

Identification:

• it is a very robust grass; the dense, coarse leaf base grows to several metres, and the feathery flower clusters are up to 4 metres high
• the flower spray is large and feathery
• the glumes are longer than the lemma bodies
• the lemmas have long hairs and have awns
• the spikelets have about 10 lemmas
• the leaves are flat or folded
• the ligule is of hairs 2-3mm long.

The plants are either female or bisexual.

Until the 1970s, all Pampas Grass in Victoria was of a low-fertility female form. In the 1970-80s, imported seed contained high-fertility plants and bisexual plants, so that Pampas Grass has become a highly invasive species.

It is an environmental weed.

Cortaderia: Argentinian name for Pampas Grass; selloana: in honour of Friedrich Sellow, 1789-1831, a German botanist.

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