Deer Grass
Muhlenbergia rigens
A California native bunch grass with narrow grey-green leaves and tall, silvery flower spikes arching above them, lovely massed in a meadow, on a bank or as a specimen, with seeds that feed birds. Once established it can go all summer without water. Cut it back in late winter for fresh growth.
- Mature size
- 4.5 × 5 ft
- 1.3 × 1.5 m, tall × wide
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Dry
- Blooms
- Jul–Sep
Deer Grass at its mature size
A mature Deer Grass grows 3 to 5 feet tall and 4 to 6 feet wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: San Marcos Growers, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
Through the year
What Deer Grass looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Winter · Nov–Jun
Gray-green blades bleached tan at the tips, no spikes.
In flower · Jul–Oct
Fine gray-green blades with slender silvery flower spikes.
Photos
Growing Deer Grass
- Grows well in
- The desert Southwest and California.
- Good for
- Drought tolerant
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- California, Southwestern United States, and Mexico
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Deer Grass, that’s about 5 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Deer Grass in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other muhly grasses
Pink Muhly Grass
Lindheimer Muhly
Deer GrassAll drawn to the same scale.