Cats Tail

Vital Statistics

Name:: Cat's Tail Grass, Bottle-brush or Rainbow Grass
Latin Name: Perotis patens
Uses: The inflorescence is sometimes used in flower arrangements. Due to the few leaves, it is seldom grazed. It is sometimes a weed in disturbed places, but is easy to control mechanically.
Description: Length up to 60 cm. Tufted annual with 12 mm leaf blades. Spikelets are small, each with two awns. Leaves are wavy and are blue-green in colour. Inflorescence is an attractive soft, straight spike. This type of grass is unpalatable.
Habitat: Cat's tail Grass occurs in disturbed soils, often in dry, exposed sites. It grows mostly in poor, sandy and compacted soil; also in orchards and cultivated lands, and sometimes on stony slopes and can be found in the Limpopo Province and the Kruger National Park.
Flowers: November - April.
Notes: Cat's Tail Grass is known by a number of names throughout its range. Names include Bottlebrush Grass, Rainbow Grass and Purple-spike Perotis