Nassella tenuissima
Mexican Feather Grass

Family: Poaceae

This grass has delicate, thread-like leaves that billow gracefully in even the slightest breeze, reaching to about 18 to 24 inches tall and wide. Often one of the silkiest-looking grasses in the trade. Light, wheat-colored seed heads emerge in May.

Full to part sun, moderate water, hardy to -10°F. Plants reseed readily in landscape where there is wet soil.

Native grasses are extremely important plants for wildlife: as nesting material for birds as well as native bees and other insects, as habitat for many organisms, and as food: adult insects eat the foliage, granivorous birds depend on many species for seeds, and most grass species are used as larval hosts for many species of butterflies and moths, especially skippers. Many bee species collect the pollen of many species of grasses. All can be used for desert tortoise enclosures, though the more spreading types are better for keeping up with a tortoise appetite.

Grasses also play an important role in the ecology of soil, and because they are monocots, they can be planted close to other species of plants (the nature of the root systems of monocots renders them less imposing on neighboring plants). They hold soil down and help prevent erosion. Many species are pioneer plants that convert disturbed soils into hospitable places for other plants.

Nassella is a diminutive of the Latin nassa, a basket with a narrow neck, a fish basket, while tenuissima means very slender. Formerly known as Stipa tenuissima. The genus Nassella has 112 species found from North America through South America.

This species is native to the south-western United States (Texas, New Mexico), and adjacent northern Mexico on rocky, open slopes, dry woods with shallow rocky soils, grasslands and montane forest clearings. It also has disjunct native populations in Argentina and Chile. This species has become invasive in wetter regions, like parts of California.

Photo by desireemacke on iNaturalist