Names of Grasses Pollinated by Wind

Carex

• Members of the Carex genus, commonly known as sedges, are wind-pollinated. Though each of the more than 2,000 species found worldwide has different characteristics, sedges do not produce seeds and tend to have staminate, or male, upper spikes. Ornamental sedge varieties range from creeping broadleaved sedge (C. siderosticha), which grows to 8 inches tall and spreads into a dense mat of wide green foliage, to palm sedge (C. muskingumensis), which grows from 2 to 3 feet tall and has stiff, narrow, tapered leaves that turn yellow in fall.

Elymus

• The 200 species in the Elymus genus are wind-pollinated, cool-season grasses, which means they lie dormant during the hot summer months. They tend to have lanceolate-shaped foliage. Elymus grasses grow in North America, Asia, Europe, South America and Australia. Ornamental species include blue lyme grass (E. arenarius), which grows 3 to 4 feet tall. It has clumps of gray-blue foliage and produces tall spikes in summer. Giant blue wild rye (E. racemosa) grows to 4 feet tall and has flat, metallic-blue foliage. It spreads rapidly through a system of rhizomes.

Festuca

• The 100 species in the Festuca genus tend to grow in low clumps of fine, evergreen foliage. Fescues grow in North America, Europe and North Africa. Varieties include tufted fescue (F. amethystine), a 2-foot-tall grass with threadlike, blue-green to silver-blue foliage. It produces small inflorescences held on 2-foot-tall purple stalks. Blue fescue (F. glauca) grows from 6 to 10 inches tall. It has very fine, blue-green foliage and forms in a dense mound.

Miscanthus

• Grasses in the Miscanthus genus are wind-pollinated. They range in size from a few feet tall up to 10 feet tall. Each species has different characteristics, but all produce light- or red-pink plumes that age to beige. Giant miscanthus (M. floridulus) grows to 10 feet tall and has broad, upright foliage. It produces a large inflorescence in midsummer that matures to tan.

  Taiwanese miscanthus (M. transmorrisonensis) grows to 3 feet tall and has fine, evergreen foliage. It produces a tall, feathery inflorescence in midsummer. Maiden grass (M. sinenesis) grows from 6 to 8 feet tall and has arching, narrow green foliage with a white center rib. It turns bronze to beige in fall and produces deep red plumes in fall that age to buff.