Silky nodding plumes that really do look like squirrels' tails, on a fast, easy grass at 45 to 60cm. They come up pale green washed with an iridescent pinkish-purple, deepen through dusky rose, and finish warm golden beige by autumn.
It is a plant about light. Grow it where the low sun can get behind it, morning or evening, and the long bristles light up into something close to a halo. In flat midday light it is a pleasant grass; backlit it is the thing people photograph. It flowers in twelve to fourteen weeks from sowing, faster than almost any other ornamental grass, and it is at its most iridescent in that first year, which is why it is usually treated as an annual even though it will often overwinter.
One real warning. The barbed awns travel through skin in one direction only, and they are a known hazard to dogs, lodging in paws, ears and noses. If you have dogs that run through borders, do not grow it. It also seeds itself about freely, so cut it for drying before the heads shatter.
