• Hairy Awn Muhly in a 4-inch pot, fine green blades that carry a pink haze of panicles each fall
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Hairy Awn Muhly

Hairy Awn Muhly

MUHLENBERGIA capillaris

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Common Name(s)
Hairy Awn Muhly, Pink Muhly Grass
Sunlight
Full Sun (6+ hrs)
Perennial Zones
5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Watering
Let dry
Max Height
2'–4'
Max Spread
Over 24"
Garden Design Role
Architectural
Bloom Season
Fall
Lifespan
Perennial
Growing Habit
Mounding, Clumping, Tufted
Drought Resistance
High drought resistance
Foliage Color
Green, Red/Orange
Themes
Pretty in Pink, Sunset, Pastel
Genus
Muhlenbergia
Family
Poaceae
Ship Size
4"

Hairy Awn Muhly spends most of the year as a modest fountain of fine green blades — and then, in fall, throws a haze of pink so fine it reads as colored smoke rather than flowers. The cloud ages to soft tan and stands through winter.

Plant it where low afternoon light can get behind it, which is when the display does its real work: along a drive, at the top of a slope, massed in a prairie-style border, or in a wide container set against a plain wall. Muhlenbergia capillaris takes heat, drought, poor soil and coastal wind without complaint. Three plants read as a drift; one reads as an accident.

Fun fact: capillaris means hair-like, and that is exactly what the pink is — thousands of flower stalks so slender that the color comes from the sheer number of them rather than from any one bloom. It is native to the eastern and southeastern United States.

  • Sunlight: Full Sun (6+ hrs)
  • Water: Let dry
  • Drought Tolerance: High
  • Mature Size: 2'–4' tall × over 24" wide
  • Bloom Season: Fall
  • Lifespan: Perennial
  • Perennial Zones: 5–9

Cut the old growth back before spring and it returns bigger. Guaranteed to arrive healthy.

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