Hardiness zones
Sunset 7-24
USDA 6 - 11

Landscape Use: Best planted in groups as an accent for bank covers, rock gardens, transitional landscapes. Best used when viewed from a distance.

Form & Character: Light, breezy, airy,  grass plant suggests movement of air, has a cooling, softening effect in the landscape.

Growth Habit: Perennial bunch grass clumping to 3' to 5' in height with equal spread

Foliage/Texture: Dense tufts of narrow, linear dull gray-green leaves from 1.5' to 6'long (1/8" wide), slightly wider than M. capillaris, fine texture

Flowers & Fruits: Erect whip-like flower spike panicles to 3', florets light brown. Seeds extremely small, ie. 2.5 million per pound.

Seasonal Color: Flowering during late summer and autumn.

Temperature: Tolerant

Light: Full sun

Soil: Well drained

Watering: Weekly to bi-weekly deep irrigations in summer will keep plants robust.

Pruning: Shear (only once per year in late winter) or burn to the ground in late winter or early spring to remove the copius production of thatch (dead and slow to decompose leaves because of the dry climate) and induce vigor.

Propagation: Division anytime, seed in fall and early winter

Disease and pests: None in central Arizona, though air-borne fungi infect foliage in moister climates.

Additional comments: Medium sized popular bunch grass plant that has found a landscape niche as a substitute for the invasive Pennisetum setaceum. Deer grass is larger, more vigorous and less refined than M. capillaris. It's ultimate larger size in Phoenix landscapes surprises most.