feather grass

American  

noun

1. any American grass of the genus Stipa, having a feathery appendage.

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feather grass British  

noun

1. a perennial grass, Stipa pennata, native to the steppes of Europe and N Asia, cultivated as an ornament for its feathery inflorescence

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Etymology

Origin of feather grass

First recorded in 1770–80

Example Sentences

Roomy garden placement, say at 11 and 3, ensures that the two specimen performers, the manzanita and the giant feather grass, won’t upstage one another.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 7, 2023

Over the last two decades in Paris, the winter temperatures have risen, allowing him to cultivate, say, Mexican feather grass sooner than he could have in the past.

From New York Times • Dec. 6, 2019

Nassella tenuissima, or Mexican feather grass, grows low, finely tufted green ponytails that flower into fluffy flaxen strands of 2 feet.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 5, 2018

"It was filled with pampas grass and Mexican feather grass," both rapidly rising invasive threats, Johnson says.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 3, 2015

The soil is sandy and gravelly glacial till which will raise little else beside feather grass and sumac.

From Northern Nut Growers Association, report of the proceedings at the eighth annual meeting Stamford, Connecticut, September 5 and 6, 1917 by Northern Nut Growers Association