This fast growing Australian native can attain small tree size and is a landscaping favorite on the central coast with its shiny dark green leaves and small orange fruits with sticky seeds in the Fall, which I assume are transported by birds and other animals. The wavy leaf margins are conspicuous. I don't know how high it ranges in elevation and am interested in reports. Fountain grass, Pennisetum setaceum , is an attractive perennial grass with a densely clumped growth form and erect stems that grow 2 to 3 feet high. The small flowers of fountain grass are grouped in pink or purple, bristly, upright inflorescences 6-15 inches long.
Fruits are small achenes adorned with long showy bristles.
It was introduced at Grimes Point as an ornamental in the 60's and now is seen along Highway One in this vicinity, where it seems to prefer the granite soils found there. In southern California from Santa Barbara south, it is a very common roadside weed. There is a coppery-colored supposedly sterile cultivar commonly seen in urban landscapes. Look on Boronda ridge if you come down that trail from Timber Top to Highway One and please let me know if you see it there. The mature plant forms a low mat with creeping underground stems and produces stout creeping stems that root at the nodes on the surface of the soil.