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Molinia caerulea
Also called Purple Moor Grass, Moor Grass
Purple moorgrass (Molinia caerulea) is a native European tussock-forming perennial grass of moors, bogs and heaths, grown for its purple spikelets and yellow autumn stems. It thrives in acid, moist, open ground and is best suited to wild or naturalistic planting.
Molinia caerulea, known by the common name purple moor-grass, is a species of grass that is native to Europe, west Asia, and north Africa. It grows in locations from the lowlands up to 2,300 m (7,546 ft) in the Alps. Like most grasses, it grows best in acid soils, ideally pH values of between 3.5 and 5, however, it can continue to live under more extreme conditions, sometimes to as low as 2. It is common on moist heathland, bogs and moorland throughout Great Britain and Ireland. Introduced populations exist in northeastern and northwestern North America.
The specific epithet caerulea means "deep blue" and refers to the purple spikelets.
Molinia caerulea is cultivated for its panicles of purple spikelets on yellow stems. In cultivation it grows to 1.5 m (5 ft) tall by 40 cm (16 in) broad. Numerous cultivars have been selected, of which the following have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:
M. caerulea subsp. arundinacea 'Windspiel'
The caterpillars of some Lepidoptera use it as a foodplant, e.g., the chequered skipper (Carterocephalus palaemon).
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Molinia caerulea by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
