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| Category: Grass |
| Family: Poaceae (Gramineae) (Grasses) |
| Origin: Garden Origin |
| Evergreen: Yes |
| Flower Color: Yellow Green |
| Bloomtime: Summer/Fall |
| Synonyms: [C. brachytricha 'Lushan', Deyeuxia effusiflora] |
| Height: 3-4 feet |
| Width: 3-4 feet |
| Exposure: Sun or Shade |
| Irrigation (H2O Info): Medium Water Needs |
| Winter Hardiness: < 0 °F |
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Calamagrostis effusiflora (Lushan Feather Reed Grass) - An attractive evergreen ornamental grass that grows as a clump to 3 to 4 feet tall with 3/8 inch wide green ribbon like foliage that can have a slight reddish tint. In late summer the flowers rise above the foliage in open airy panicles, starting a greenish yellow color with a tint of lilac and age to a light gold color fall into winter. Plant in full sun to light shade and give occasional to regular irrigation. A very hardy grass that can survive temperatures down to -4° F. Can be cut back in late winter to promote clean fresh foliage. Though not well tested in our mediterranean climate, this grass should prove to be a useful and showy grass as a specimen or in a mass planting for occasionally irrigated open understory areas or more regularly irrigated sunny meadow plantings. Though the leaves are slightly broader, the taller and more airy inflorescences give this plant a much more delicate appearance than the more common Korean Feather Reed Grass, Calamagrostis brachytricha (AKA Diamond Grass), plus it is evergreen (at least in coastal California gardens). Orignially thought to be endemic to China. In the Flora of China under the listing (Deyeuxia effusiflora) it is noted to grow in wet places, especially river banks from 2,000 to 9,500 feet in Gansu, Guizhou, Henan, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Zhejiang but more recently the range has been determined to include areas in the East Himalaya into Bhutan and India. It was first described as Deyeuxia effusiflora in 1904 in the Journal of the Linnean Society, Botany 36 by the British botanist Alfred Barton Rendle, Keeper of Botany at the Natural History Museum in London but more recent molecular studies have shifted all of the Asian species of Deyeuxia into the genus Calamagrostis. We received seed of this plant from the "grassman" John Greenlee who had received from German horticulturalist Cassian Schmidt, the Director of Hermannshof Garden in Weinheim, Germany. Schmidt introduced this plant as Calamagrostis brachytricha 'Lushan' in 2010 and had originally collected seed of it from Mount Lushan, China at an elevation of about 3,600 feet.
This information about Calamagrostis effusiflora displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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