Pink Muhlygrass (Muhlenbergia capillaris)
Height: 2 to 3 feet
Spread: 2 to 3 feet
Type: Native Grass
Sun: Full sun
Bloom Time: September to November
Bloom Description: Pink to Pinkish-Red
Water: Dry to Medium
Suggested Use: Naturalize, Winter Interest
Attracts: Birds
Tolerate: Drought and Black Walnut
Native to: Appalachian Ohio
A plant for all Fraggle Rock fans, as the Pink Muhlygrass looks like Gobo Fraggle’s hair protruding from the landscape.
Pink Muhlygrass is a stunning native plant with appealing summer foliage and breathtaking fall flowers that look like wispy clouds. It is a great complement to those landscapes with fading summer flowers. The delicate plumes of flower panicles create a striking pink haze above the dark green, glossy foliage.
A clump forming warm season grass it is best grown in sandy or rocky soils, but will tolerate a variety of conditions. While attractive individually , the best display come from plantings in mass. It is one of the few grasses that do not spread by rhizomes. The plant is easily grown from seed but can also be divided in the spring.
A native to the region, Pink Muhlygrass is a long-lived plant, with little to no insect or disease pests, and highly resistant to deer grazing. Pink Muhlygrass is the definition of low maintenance and can tolerate drought, heat, humidity, and poor soil. For those landscapes near roadways the Pink Muhlygrass is highly salt tolerant.
A host plant to a variety of butterflies and moths including the Orange skipper, the true wildlife value comes in the form that song birds use the foliage for nest materials and the seeds are veraciously consumed by birds and small mammals like chipmunks and squirrels. ■
