Cenchrus setaceus

Fountaingrass

Field view of Cenchrus setaceus or Fountaingrass.	Often Used as a landscape plant.	The inflorescence is light colored and fluffy.
One commercial variety is called Purple Fountaingrass. This one escaped.	The leaves are narrow.	The seedhead is bristly.
The spikelets with their long bristles are distinctive.	There is a brown lemma with white stigmas to collect pollen.	These stigmas became crossed at the ends.

How to Identify Fountaingrass

  As a popular landscaping plant, you will see Fountaingrass all over town, usually below 4,500 feet altitude. Fountaingrass is a perennial bunchgrass growing 2 to almost 5 feet tall and living for 20 years. It is smaller in the wild. As an invasive from northern Africa, it is actively replacing native grasses. The seedheads sometimes bend over.

Similar Species

  Bufflegrass (Cenchrus ciliaris) is similar and even more invasive in the desert. It is usually shorter but grows in thick, wide bunches. It has smaller and shorter seedheads than Fountaingrass. Here is a photo of Bufflegrass.