Nassella tenuissima Seeds | Mexican Feather Grass
LATIN NAME: Nassella tenuissima
COMMON NAME: Mexican Feather Grass
Plant Profile
Nassella tenuissima, commonly known as Mexican Feather Grass, is a grass. Mexican feather grass is a fine, silky, wind-blown grass of dry hillsides. The whole clump moves in the slightest breeze, and it is a fine, easy, generous plant of the sunny, dry, well-drained garden. It is a plant of open, sunny ground. Plants that offer this much while asking this little are rare enough to treasure.
Science & Biotechnology
As part of the Nassella group, Nassella tenuissima contributes to research on plant classification and adaptation, while nurseries and gardeners continue to trial it for cultivation. Mexican feather grass has carved a quiet but solid place in plant science, and grass has been studied for fine, hair-like leaves and feathery, silver-green flower heads. The practical point for growers is that this plant has been observed in gardens for so long that its behaviour holds few surprises.
Uses & Benefits
Gardeners value Mexican Feather Grass for its ornamental character, and the plant also fits naturally into herb, vegetable and cutting gardens. Mexican feather grass does a lot of work in the garden. Fine, silky flower heads sway and catch light through the whole summer, and the neat, clumping grass is one of the great ornamental grasses for the border, the gravel garden and the container. It has been written up in horticultural papers for feathery, wind-blown look and ease of plant, and it is a fine, easy grass of open, sunny, well-drained garden. Getting it going is easy; keeping it going is easier still.
Like the best garden herbs, it rewards growers twice: once in the garden with scent and pollinators, and again in the home as a traditional household herb.
Growing from Seed
Mexican Feather Grass grows readily from seed. Fill a pot with a light seed compost, sow evenly on the surface, cover thinly and stand it somewhere warm, bright and evenly moist. Transplant the sturdiest seedlings to their permanent spots and let them develop without disturbance.
Our Take
Once established, Mexican Feather Grass largely looks after itself. Start with fresh seed, keep it evenly moist, and the plant does the rest itself.
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