Botanical name: Cenchrus orientalis    Family: Poaceae (Grass family)
Synonyms: Panicum orientale, Pennisetum oriental, Pennisetum tenue

Oriental fountain grass is an unusually low-growing and compact fountain grass. The gracefully cascading clump of dense foliage are only about 1 ft tall. It grows in a mound that grows outward slowly via short underground rhizomes. Leaf-blades are up to 60 cm long and 1.5 cm wide, flat or convolute, hairless, scaberulous or velvet-hairy. Flower panicles are linear, 8-30 cm long, often interrupted. The inflorescence, standing a foot or two above the arching mound of leaves, consists of a plume of pearly white or silvery pink fluff. Spikelets are lanceshaped, 4.5-6.5 mm long; lower glume a quarter the length of the spikelet and blunt, to one-third or two-fifths as long and pointed, rarely as much as half as long and tapering, 1-nerved, occasionally nerveless. Oriental fountain grass is found in N Africa to Caucasus and Indian Subcontinent, including the Himalayas. Flowering: April-October.

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The flower labeled Oriental Fountain Grass is ...