Warning about invasive grass!

**"Peter Loewer" t*@earthlink.net**

Group: Just a warning about a potentially dangerous grass. The only reason
I'm writing concerns finding plants for sale this past weekend at two local
box stores. It's Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Moudry' [P. alopecuroides
'Viridescens'], or the black-flowering pennisetum. This is a beautiful grass
that was not imported from New Zealand and named in honor of a native tribe,
nor was it, as rumored, a horticultural form found by the Cincinnati Parks
Department (seed actually was came from the Baltimore City Horticulturist,
G. Moudry), and while strikingly beautiful, it is extremely invasive. Upon
ripening, the bristly seeds attach themselves to people and animals, not to
mention the wind, and are soon invading your lawn, your garden, your
neighbor's lawn two doors down the street or perennial borders two or three
blocks away. This grass is attractive just in growth but when in flower,
sporting six-inch black plumes on eighteen-inch stems, it's almost worth the
trouble of cutting back those flowering stems before the seeds mature. And
that's a job you must do! If you don't--Peter Loewer

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