Resource Database

Purple pampasgrass is a large, tufted, perennial grass native to South America. Leaves are basal, ascending to spreading, bright green, sharply serrated and can reach to 5 ft. (1.5 m) in height. All plants are female and develop seed through apomixis. Flowering occurs in late summer to early fall, when 1-3.3 ft. (0.3-1 m) long, purple-tinged plumes develop over the tufts of leaves. Each plume can produce up to 100,000 seeds. Purple pampasgrass invades roadsides, dunes, bluffs and other disturbed areas. Plants also invade coastal shrub and grasslands.