If a grass can be romantic, this one tops the list. Fine, delicate foliage moves with the slightest breeze and lends a lush, visual presence to the garden. Mexican feather grass is a cool-season grass with a clumping habit that grows 18"-24" tall. It breaks dormancy early in the growing season with bright green foliage. Delicate, arching panicles with goldish-white spikelets emerge in spring at the tips of the blades. As they mature, the tips become featherlike. Nassella tenuissima is native to Texas and New Mexico and into northern Mexico, where it grows on rocky slopes and in open grasslands. It can be short-lived if not sited in optimal conditions, but it's worth growing in the short term for the outstanding foliage. And you may find it reseeds itself into the places it would prefer to be.
Mexican feather grass performs best with full to part sun in moist to dry, well-drained soils. Wet or soppy conditions invite crown and root rot, as do frequent watering or heavy mulching. Good drainage is imperative. As a cool-season grass, its active growth periods are spring and fall. After it blooms in spring, growth will slow and plants can even go summer-dormant in dry conditions. The foliage may age to wheat colored, but it keeps its form and remains relatively attractive. It can help to "groom" the plant by combing through and removing the spent inflorescences and foliage. New growth will emerge in late summer and fall as temperatures drop. Avoid cutting all the way back, as plants may not ever recover their beautiful form.
This grass takes beautifully to raised beds and containers. It's a great anchor for mixed containers and, even when fully dormant, lends appealing texture and form.
Space plants 12"-24" on center.
This grass can overlap and become matted if planted too closely. With good drainage, it's less of a problem. With closer spacing and as the planting matures, you may need to thin out individuals to provide better air circulation and prevent heavy matting.
The fine texture and wispy foliage of Mexican feather grass contrast beautifully with broad-leaved sun lover Opuntia humifusa (eastern prickly pear). Other companions that thrive with it include Penstemon digitalis (floxglove beardtongue), Baptisia australis var. minor (blue wild indigo), Amsonia tabernaemontana (eastern bluestar), and any number of Echinacea (coneflowers).
Nassella tenuissima grows naturally in Texas, New Mexico, and northern Mexico. There are also disjuinct populations in South America. In addition to natural populations, this grass has naturalized in California where it escaped from cultivation. It will readily reseed with the right conditions, so use with caution in warmer zones (7-10) and confine to managed areas where the spread can be controlled.
Recorded County Distribution: USDA data.
CA, NM, TX |
MAP OF WETLAND DELINEATION REGIONS
Code |
Status |
Designation |
Comment |
OBL |
Obligate Wetland |
Hydrophyte |
Almost always occur in wetlands |
FACW |
Facultative Wetland |
Hydrophyte |
Usually occur in wetlands, but may occur in non-wetlands |
FAC |
Facultative |
Hydrophyte |
Occur in wetlands and non-wetlands |
FACU |
Facultative Upland |
Nonhydrophyte |
Usually occur in non-wetlands, but may occur in wetlands |
UPL |
Obligate Upland |
Nonhydrophyte |
Almost never occur in wetlands |
Kingdom | Plantae | Plants |
Subkingdom | Tracheobionta | Vascular plants |
Superdivision | Spermatophyta | Seed plants |
Division | Magnoliophyta | Flowering plants |
Class | Liliopsida | Monocotyledons |
Subclass | Commelinidae | |
Order | Cyperales | |
Family | Poaceae | Grass family |
Genus | Nassella | needlegrass |
Species | Nassella tenuissima | Mexican feather grass |
Mexican feather grass, Mexican wire grass, ponytail grass, Texas tussock, Mexican needlegrass, Texas needlegrass, fineleaved Nassella
Stipa tenuissima
Sizes info
Shipping is free on all plants orders!
Your plants will ship using each grower’s preferred method: FedEx Ground, UPS Ground, or Spee-Dee Ground (in select midwestern states). Our growers ship orders Monday through Wednesday. The farther your plants need to travel, the earlier in the week they will ship. The goal is to have all plants delivered by the end of the week.
Shipping plugs:
Plugs are shipped in full flats, sometimes also referred to as trays. Multiple flats can be shipped in a single box. The flats are wrapped in netting or craft paper to secure the plants, and spacers are used between flats to keep the plants from being crushed.
When you unpack your plugs, the plants will have been somewhat flattened by the netting or craft paper. They will straighten out within a couple of days. You may also gently “fluff” them a bit to speed up the process. In some cases, your plants might have been cut back before packing, if the grower deemed them to have become too tall for safe packaging. Don’t worry, though, these guys know what they’re doing and would not compromise the health of the plants. They’ll fill back in in no time.
After receiving your plants’ journey in a dark box, it will be important to acclimate them to sunlight again. Over a couple of days, you should gradually move them into their preferred light exposure, and water them as per their requirement.
Although we always recommend putting your plants in the ground as soon as possible, they can stay healthy in the flats for a considerable amount of time. The key is to respect their growing requirements: if the species requires full sun, do not store them in the shade. If it is best adapted to dry soil, do not over-water.
Planting plugs:
We consider plugs ready to ship when the plants’ roots have filled the entire liner cell and the plants can easily be pulled out. In some cases you will have to go about it gently, wiggling the plant by the crown, and possibly squeezing the bottom of the liner to compress the growing medium and release the roots. Other times, the plants will appear to be root bound. They are not in the traditional sense. The plants are healthy but they have used up all the growing medium available to them. Plugs are at an aggressive stage of growth. As soon as planted the roots will immediately expand into your native soil. They establish faster than plants in larger containers, because they don’t have the luxury of a lot of growing media that can inhibit the roots from venturing outside of their comfort zone.
We are not going to address area preparation because the process can be complex and is always site-specific. However, as a rule, we recommend disturbing the soil as little as possible, and we do not recommend amending the soil. If you chose the right plant for the right conditions they will thrive. Any disturbance and amendments will only encourage weeds to emerge that never had a chance to do so before.
Installing plugs cannot be easier: dig a hole large enough for the roots to fit snugly inside, then water them in to eliminate air gaps. We recommend using a soil knife, sometimes referred to as hori hori, or a drill-adapted auger if it’s a large installation. If you use an auger, you will need a powerful drill. Depending on the size of the project and the type of soil, the process can be beyond what an average drill will bear. Mulching is recommended after installation to help keep weeds down while the plants establish. Be sure to keep it away from the crown of the plants. For large projects, you may want to mulch the area before planting, rather than tiptoeing through it after the fact. As a side note: if you are installing plugs in the fall, you might want to plant them so that the crown is about ¾” lower than the surrounding soil. The winter’s freeze/thaw cycles can push plugs out if the roots did not have enough time to establish and anchor them in.