Pic(k) of the Week: Pink Grass

It's pink; it's prolific; it's native to the southeastern U.S. It's pink muhly grass.

Scientifically Muhlenbergia capillaris and also called hair-awn muhly or pink hairgrass ...

this southeastern native grass is found in both the Piedmont and the Coastal Plain regions but in different environments. According to the Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States (May 2015), in the Piedmont it is found “primarily in clayey or thin rocky soils (especially in areas which formerly burned and were prairie-like) and in open woodlands.” In the Coastal Plain, the habitat description is “in savannas, dry woodlands, and coastal grasslands (where sometimes in close proximity with M. sericea), in the Mountains around calcareous rock outcrops.”

— Using Georgia Native Plants

In the photo above, pink muhly grass is extensively planted about a two-acre pond in Atlanta, Georgia's Historic Fourth Ward Park where (until 2011) ...

stood little more than cracked asphalt and trash-strewn fields [but that now] provides not only an arresting visual and natural gathering place, but also serves in a functional capacity as a stormwater detention basin. In this role, the lake increases the sewer capacity, reduces the burden on aging city infrastructure, and minimizes downstream flooding and property damage. The use of native plants helps reduce the cost of maintaining the 17-acre park, and organic land-care with dynamic soil biology helps reduce the need for irrigation, minimize storm water runoff, and curtail the likelihood of disease.

— Historic Fourth Ward Park Conservancy

Top photo: 18 November 2018. Bottom photo: 31 October 2018.

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• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of photos taken (or noted) by me, posted on Saturdays, and often, but not always (as is the case today), with a good fermentable as the subject.
• Camera: Olympus Pen E-PL1.
  • Top photo
    • Lens: Lumix G Vario 45-200/F4.0-5.6
    • Settings: 200 mm | 1/320 | ISO 200 | f/5.6
    • See the photo on Flickr: here.
  • Bottom photo
    • Lens: OLYMPUS M.14-42mm F3.5-5.6 II R
    • Settings: 32 mm | 1/500 | ISO 200 | f/8 (with wide converter)
    • See the photo on Flickr: here.
• Commercial reproduction requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.


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