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Muhlenbergia dumosa (Bamboo Muhly) - An interesting grass that looks like a dainty bamboo with its 4-6 feet tall light airy stems of bright-green foliage. In late fall and into winter the foliage tips are decorated with masses of small flowers that give the plant a pale pinkish-green cast. Although rhizomatous, it spreads slowly and is easily controlled.
Plant in full sun and water occasionally – this is a drought tolerant grass though looks lusher with an occasional drink. It is an attractive and unusual grass with wispy stems that dance in the wind.
Muhlenbergia dumosa grows naturally on rocky slopes, canyon ledges, and cliffs in oak-pine and thorn-scrub forests and open prairie from 2,000 to 6,000 feet in elevations in southern Arizona into Mexico from southern Baja California, Sonora to Jalisco, and the Chihuahuan Desert region. The German naturalist Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber (1739-1810) named the genus for Gotthilf Heinrich (Henry) Ernst Muhlenberg (1753-1815) who was American born but returned to his ancestral Germany for schooling and later returned to America. He was an ordained Lutheran minister but devoted his free time to the study of the botany. The specific epithet is from the Latin word 'dumos' meaning "bushy" in refence to the interesting growth habit of this grass. We got this fun and unusual grass from the Meadowmaster John Greenlee and have grown it since 1991.
This information about Muhlenbergia dumosa 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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